The Journey to Become the Very Best
by Cypress Tree
Summary: A cute yet hated starter Pokemon, a team member that will enjoy nothing more than taking a bite out of his trainer, a dream invading girl, and much more all plague Tyler Williams as he attempts to adventure across Hoenn and collect eight badges. Everything that can go wrong...will go wrong.
1. Welcome to the League

A/N: This story had been abandoned for almost two, but now I'm back...for my like 2 readers. Jk jk, but I'm not as busy (or lazy) as I had been, so hopefully this will be seeing a lot more updates in the future. With that said, enjoy!

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Today was the day. Today was the finale of the Hoenn Grand Conference. Sure I was watching it on my outdated television snuggled up on a couch wearing Ursaring pajamas. This wasn't what how most people spent there Saturday nights, but hey, I'm special. Only two trainers were left, and the most epic of battles was about to go down. A full battle between the two trainers would take place, and I was about to witness it all. I was too excited.

My mom entered the room and looked me up and down. "Tyler Williams. Really?" I know she thought I spent too much time watching Pokemon battles and what not, but I was just making sure that when I did get my first Pokemon, I would be ready with all the moves I learned from watching all the battles.

"Yes, _mom_. Really!" She knew she wasn't getting me to stop watching this, I don't even know why she was trying. I had been waiting for this day all week so no one, not my dad, my sister, and definetly not my mom, was going to stop me from watching the Hoenn Grand Conference.

"Okay honey. Just don't stay up to late. You know tomorrow is a big day." As she said that she exited. _What's __happening tomorrow?_ Oh well I'll find out when it happens. With that I turned my attention back to the television right as the battle began.

They both sent out there first Pokemon. The trainer named Michael sent out Scizor while the other trainer named Jessica sent out a Muk. Then the attacks were launched. It seemed Jessica had trained the Muk expecting it to come across Steel-types, because she immediately launched a Flamethrower attack. The purple blob took in a deep breath then released a stream of fire from its mouth straight for the metal armored bug. It felt like I was there, this moment was too good to be true.

"Dodge Magenta, and then use U-Turn!" The red insect started glowing a bright white and flew across the field landing a direct hit on the stink sack. The Scizor then started glowing light blue and returned to its Pokeball. "Now go Bricks!" A large, craggy monster looking Pokemon came from Michael's side. "RHY!"

I couldn't believe it. The Scizor was a ploy to see what she what she would start with then respond accordingly, that being a Rhyperior. Oh, this was too good to be true. "Hmph, you've gotten yourself into a sticky situation. Use Block Muk!" The purple mass let out a cry and the Rhyperior started to glow a dull red. "Haha, now you can't return your Rhyperior. Now Muk, let him have a Focus Blast." Muk put its hands above its head and a glowing, blue sphere appeared in between them. It then flung it across the field towards the slow Ground and Rock-Type Pokemon.

"Use Rock Polish!" The red rocks on Bricks's body started glow bright red and it easily dodged the Focus Blast. "Okay, now use Stone Edge!" Three light blue rings surrounded the Rhyperior's body. Then, the rings glowed white and formed into chunks of gray stones. Finally, Bricks's eyes glow yellow and the stones shot across the field at the opponent. Muk took the hit and got back up with ease.

"Hmmm, try using Poison Gas." The Muk opened its mouth and covered the field in a thick purple cloud. "Now finish it with Flamethrower." Nothing could be seen through the thick fog. Then the whole field exploded with a giant fire. She had used the flammable gas to expand her reach of Flamethrower to the whole field. When the dust had cleared from the explosion, it was revealed that both Pokemon were knocked out. Both trainers recalled their Pokemon and sent out new ones. Michael sent out his Scizor again and Jessica sent out a Beedrill.

Michael called for Magenta to use U-Turn. The Scizor burst across the field straight towards the Beedrill.

"Use Toxic Spikes." Jessica had called casually. The yellow and black bug jabbed its spikes into the ground sending a purple energy into the ground. Then the Scizor hit it knocking it out instantly. Both Pokemon returned to their Pokeballs. Michael called out a Luxio while Jessica called out a Jumpluff.

As soon as the Luxio touched the ground, it glowed a dark purple then reeled in pain as the poison went deep into its body. "Okay Jumpluff use Leech Seed." The Cottonweed Pokemon's left puff glowed a bright white then it shot multiple seeds at the blue and black cat. As soon as the seeds hit they turned into vines that latched around its torso. Then Luxio glowed red while Jumpluff, glowed green absorbing health from the Luxio and replenishing Jumpluff's.

"Come on Kaiser use Ice Fang. " The Spark Pokemon's teeth started glowing a bright white and it jumped high into the air piercing into Jumpluff's arm, then Kaiser threw the Jumpluff on the ground. "Now use Iron Tail." Kaiser's tail shined a bright white and he flipped through the air, and brought its tail down hard on the Jumpluff's head. The Jumpluff tried getting up, but failed and didn't get back up.

Jessica returned her Jumpluff and sent out a Skarmory. "Use Stealth Rock, Skarmory." The Skarmory let out a sound that sounded like metal grating on metal, then the ground glowed white for a quick moment.

"Kaiser, Thunder Fang. NOW!" It appeared to me that Michael was getting desperate. His Luxio jumped high into the air biting down on the Skarmory's wing. As soon as his fangs made contact, bolts of electricity surrounded the two, and they both came crashing down. Skarmory was still okay, but Kaiser seemed to be tired.

"It's okay, Kaiser. Take a rest." He called Kaiser back in and sent out an ape like Pokemon that seemed to be wearing fire as a crown. "Let's go Ares!" When Ares hit the ground the poison entered his body, then Stealth Rock kicked in, causing rocks from the ground to launch themselves at Ares. The ape Pokemon had just entered the field, and it already looked exhausted. "Use Flamethrower Ares!" The Infernape shot a blast of fire from its mouth. The Skarmory tried to dodge it, but it sparks of electricity surrounded its body. It had been paralyzed from Kaiser's Thunder Fang. The flame hit Skarmory dead on knocking it out cold.

This was exciting! Jessica only had two Pokemon left! If Michael could get rid of them, he could win. I've been following this guy ever since he defeated Lucien of the SInnoh League and became pretty famous. Its times like this that make me wish I actually had a Pokemon. I then directed my attention back to the screen to see that Jessica had called out a Tyranitar. This could be bad. There were old wives' tales about Tyranitars destroying mountain ranges. Surely that couldn't be true. But true or not, Ares was already tired from the damage of Stealth Rock and the ever increasing poison.

"Use Aerial Ace." The large Pokemon shot off at an amazing speed for Michael's Infernape.

"Go and use Close Combat!" The Ares tried moving out of the way of the aerial attack, but the attack still caught a part of his torso. Ares then got real close to the Tyranitar and started punching and kicking the Tyranitar, dealing a great deal of damage to it.

"Use Focus Punch Tyranitar." The dinosaur like pokemon's fist started to glow, and then it punched Ares right in the gut sending him flying back into the wall. Ares was out. I wasn't worried though, Michael still had three Pokemon left.

"Go Fate!" As Michael called that out, an Espeon appeared on the field ready for battle. Then she screamed in pain as the poison coursed through her body and rocks dug into her skin. "Use Grass Knot." Fate's eyes started glowing a bright green and grass grew and tied itself in front of Tyranitar who then proceeded to trip over it.

"Use Dark Pulse." While still on the ground the Tyranitar blasted a beam of dark circles from its mouth. To me it looked as if things were going south.

"Use Future Sight." Fate eyes glowed blue and it let out a beautiful song. Then it was hit by dark pulse and was instantly out. Things were going really south.

"Come back out Magenta." Although the Toxic Spikes had not affect on the Scizor the rock still lifted from the ground and dealt her some damage.

"Stone Edge, Tyranitar!" Two light green rings surrounded Tyranitar's body. Then, the rings glowed white and formed into chunks of black stones. Tyranitar then blasted the stones at Scizor.

"Go and use Iron Head!" Magenta glowed silver and blasted through the rocks, suffering some damage. The attack then hit the Tyranitar dead on, but it just got back up. Oh boy, I was starting to get _real _nervous. He couldn't lose. Not here. Not after all this.

"Alright Tyranitar, let's see another Focus Punch." Tyranitar's fist glowed a bright white, and it slammed it into the Scizor's face, knocking it out. Just then a energy that looked a lot like lightning struck Tyranitar from the sky. Thank you, Future Sight. The Tyranitar's body had smoke coming from it. It tried to move but fell and was declared unable to battle.

"Alright Blaziken, lets go." The fiendish woman had called out the Fire and Fighting type Blaziken. Things just got a whole lot worse. I've never been a fan of the over glorified chicken. _Everyone_ from my school seemed to want a Torchic because it was cute and cuddly. The two main ingredients in stealing a kid's attention from seriously hardcore Pokemon like Carvanha or Pinsir. I would never want a Torchic, I wouldn't even look at a Combusken, and if I had a Blaziken...ha, well that will just never happen.

"Okay let's go Birthday." A purple balloon thing came out on the field. Was this it? A balloon? Really? The stones from Stealth Rock drilled out of the ground and into the balloon Pokemon. Oh, Arceus help him. "Okay, use Pain Split!" Both the Drifloon and the Blaziken became surrounded in a black aura. The Drifloon restored its energy while the Blaziken had its energy sucked out of it.

"Use Fire Blast Blaziken." The Blaziken shot a intense ball of fire towards Drifloon. There's no way that Drifloon could survive an awesome attack like that. Oh, this couldn't be happening.

"Use Ominous Wind, Birthday." The balloon started spinning rapidly sending a dark wind towards Blaziken. The wind ended up pushing the Fire Blast back towards Blaziken, and hitting him dead in the chest.

"Use Fire Blast again." She replied so calm, but her Blaziken would just end up taking another hit, so why was she doing this?

"Use Ominous Wind again." The purple repeated its actions sending the fire back towards its summoner.

"Okay use Blaze Kick now Blaziken." The Blaze Pokemon's foot started to catch fire, and then it jumped with its foot pointing towards Birthday. Blaziken went right through the fire, and the fire actually added to the Blaze Kick. The attack hit the balloon, and for a second there, I thought it would pop. He floated down from the air with a thud and had no more fight in him.

"Okay Kaiser, I choose you." The beaten up Spark Pokemon entered the battle arena more poison seeped into his body, and he took heavy damage from Stealth Rock. Despite all the damage he had taken he still stood and stared down his opponent.

"I give up…"

I couldn't believe what just happened. All this rooting, all this preparing, all this looking up to…Just for him to give up. What a fall from grace.


	2. Adventuring With the Enemy

I woke up the next morning still shocked that my idol had lost, and what was worse was she beat him using a team that seemed to be just a bunch of misfits. She started it off with a stink bag that blew up the whole field. After that she used a sting happy bug that couldn't even take a hit. Then she sent out some weed that tried to put the hurt on Kaiser, but failed. She then sent out some metal bird that set up a Stealth Rock trap, and didn't end up doing in anything else. After the pieces were in place, she sent out that monster of a Pokemon that wreaked havoc all over Michael's team, before finally succumbing to a Future Sight. Finally, she sent out that cursed Blaziken that took down Birthday easily, and didn't even have to fight Kaiser. This was too frustrating!

I got out of bed, and pulled the clothes that I wore yesterday on. I started walking towards the door, and when I opened it. I was well…surprised to say the least.

"SURPRISE!" My mom, dad, and younger sister had been waiting at the door outside my room. In all the disarray that last night's battle caused me, I totally forgot today was my birthday. Even when I saw the Drifloon named Birthday, I still didn't remember. How do you forget your own freaking birthday?

"Are you ready for your day? Today's gonna be all about you honey!" My mom said very excitedly. She seemed to be more excited about my birthday than I was, granted she actually did remember it.

"Umm…yeah, okay." I said somewhat confused and disoriented. I really wasn't in the mood for celebration. There was nothing to celebrate. Turning twelve isn't a big deal. Losing in the final match of the Hoenn Conference is a big deal. A very big deal indeed.

"You don't sound excited." My four years old sister was right I wasn't excited. I continued to look at them with no emotion in my face. "You should be excited! Mommy and Daddy bought you a Pokemon!" My little sis jumped up and down as a grin spread across my face like a wildfire.

"Susie that was supposed to be the last surprise of the day." My dad said, although he didn't look very mad at the fact that she spilled, because it brightened me up. It more than brightened me up; it consumed me and left my body with a tingly feeling. I couldn't believe they actually got me a Pokemon.

"So what did you get me? A Skorupi? Those are pretty strong right, and they evolve into the beast that is Drapion! Or did you get me an Onix? I always thought Steelix was a pretty cool Pokemon! Oh, just tell me!" I was about as giddy as my sister when she got to meet the _real '_My Little Ponyta.'

"Well here. See for yourself." My dad pulled a red and white ball from behind his back. It seemed to be no bigger than a marble, than it grew to the size of a baseball. Was it really there? Inside that Pokeball was my very own Pokemon. He handed the Pokeball to me, and I grabbed it greedily.

"Thanks!" With that I ran outside into our backyard to let out my Pokemon. What could be inside this Pokeball? Surely it had to be the most awesome of Pokemon. I almost tripped over the family Growlithe, Archie, trying to get to an open spot. He followed me and wagged his tail and licked my leg with his sandpaper tongue, as if to say _Let him out! Let him out._ "Okay come on out!" A flash of white light materialized from the Pokeball in front of me. I came outside, because I somewhat expected a big Pokemon, but what came out barely made it to my kneecap.

"So what do you think?" My dad asked from the doorway into the house. I didn't know what to say, except that this was the continuation of the worst two days of my life. The fluffy, orange Pokemon looked me in the eye and let out the most horrible sound I had ever heard. It said Torchic.

I can't believe they got me a Torchic. This evil thing's evolution is the thing that put an end to Michael's dream of being the best trainer Sinnoh had ever seen. That meant that one day this thing would carry on the legacy of its horrible species and wreak havoc on all trainers trying to obtain glory.

"What are you gonna name him son?" My dad asked breaking me out of my daze. The only names I could think of were Devil, Demon, Beelzebub, and Dark Creature of Evil, and I didn't think any of them would earn appreciation from my dad.

"Umm, I'll name him Oliver." Oliver was this kid in my second grade class that I hated with all my guts, and now I just named my starter Pokemon after him. Yep, the day just keeps going down.

Archie was now sniffing and licking the newly named Torchic. If only my luck would have it that Growlithe's liked the taste of Torchic. No such luck. Oliver rubbed his head against Archie's chest and nuzzled closer, feeling the warmth coming out of the Puppy Pokemon's chest.

"We were gonna give you this to you when we gave you your Torchic later on today, but you already have the Torchic, so I might as well give this to you as well." He handed me a bright red device and an envelope.

"You got me a Pokedex! Wait that must mean that you—"

"Go ahead and open the envelope."

I eagerly opened the envelope to see a plastic card with my name on it. Wait this couldn't be! This was a Trainer ID! Only Trainer's who challenge Gyms and participate in Contests get these cards, which meant they were finally letting me go take part in my own adventure, capturing Pokemon, making friends, getting into dangerous situations! The worst day just turned into the best day.

Later that day around 4 P.M. I had everything together. My mom had packed my backpack full of stuff yesterday, as it was all ready planned that I would be leaving. After all the hugs and the sentimental stuff I was out the door only to be stopped by little sister.

"Wait! I wanted to give you this. Me and Richie across the street found it near Mt. Chimney. You can use it to catch other Pokemon and stuff." She handed me a small yellow and black adaptation of a Pokeball.

"Thanks Susie! I'll make sure to put it to good use." Those were my last words as I walked out of the house. I was leaving Lavaridge Town and heading for Mauville City. The only problem was that an evil, fire bird was getting comfortable in my hands as I held as one would hold a baby. Oh Arceus, is the some version of a cruel joke?


	3. And Off We Go

Oliver had already fallen asleep in my arms, and I had only been walking for about an hour. Every so often he would readjust and burrow his body deeper into my arms, but my arms were getting tired, and they needed to rest. "Oliver." I adjusted my arms somewhat trying to wake him up, but it had no effect. "Oliver!" This time I jerked my arms somewhat making an odd movement which succeeded in waking him up. It also succeeded in surprising him causing him to start pecking me and my arms. "Ouch, ouch, ouch! Come on Oliver, stop it." The Chick Pokemon realized everything was fine and nestled back into my arms.

"No, Oliver. You're getting heavy now." I set him down on the rocky terrain and he looked up at me. He jumped up and down signifying that he wanted to be lifted again. "No Oliver. You need to walk just like me. Okay?"

"Chick?" Oliver tilted its head in confusion. He then chose to start jumping up and down again to try and get me to pick him up, but it wouldn't work. I was used to Susie trying this on me. The old cute and innocent trick, HA! It would take more than that.

I crossed my hands over my chest and just looked at him, planning to do so until he got the idea. Once he got what was going on, he plopped down on his butt and let out a whinny cry that could probably be heard for miles. "Oliver, stop it." I said as I brought my hands over my ears to try and block out the noise.

"A new trainer it seems." I turned around to see a trainer who appeared about a year older than me walking towards Oliver and I. Oliver looked at the trainer then shrunk closer to me, threatened by the new presence. "Haha, tell your little one that there's no need to worry. I'm not gonna hurt him." He walked closer to me and stuck out his arm. "The name's Lucas."

I looked at this new figure which had approached me. He was wearing a white dress shirt with a black vest over it, coupled with a pair of dark dress pants. Despite the clean look he had it was obvious that he was a skilled trainer. He just carried that feel with him, that feel that he's gone through so much experience.

"So are you gonna shake my hand or just stand there." He laughed as I was brought back to reality.

"Oh sorry, my bad." I grabbed his hand his hand a bit rough and shook it with a firm grip. "The name's Tyler, but most just call me Ty. And this right here is Oliver." I shuffled to the left so that I no longer obscured Oliver who was hiding behind me. The little Torchic backed up scared and tripped on my shoes falling on my feet still whimpering a little bit from earlier.

"Seems that he's a shy one." Lucas bent down and picked up my timid starter Pokemon. Oliver started squirming trying to get out of Lucas's grip, until he scratched Oliver right behind the large three feathers, and immediately Oliver stopped squirming. His beak opened and closed as if to make sounds of satisfaction, but he debated against it. "Torchics love it when you scratch behind their head feathers. Just letting you know." He handed the now _very_ relaxed Torchic back into my arms and grabbed a Pokeball out of one of the pockets on his vest and expanded it.

"Okay, come on out Rye." The Pokeball opened up sending out a white energy that materialized into a blue and black wolf looking creature that stood on its hind legs and stared down Oliver, who responded by nestling deeper into my arms. "Rye, that's not how we treat others. Sorry he has a bit of an alpha male thing going on."

"It's alright, Oliver. He's not going to hurt you." Was my starter afraid of everything, because it sure seemed like it? I then diverted my attention to the alpha male wolf thing. Wait, I've seen a Pokemon like this before. Someone who faced Michael in the semifinals used it. What was it? Lucriri? Lucrieon? Lucart? No, no, it was more like Lucario. Yeah that's it Lucario. "So that's a Lucario. Aren't they like extremely rare?"

"Oh yeah, Lucarios are pretty rare Pokemon. The only reason I was able to get one was because my dad is an expert breeder. He gave me a newborn Riolu as my starter two years ago, but the reason I called out to you was because you look kinda lost." Was it that obvious? I mean, I was walking around aimlessly hoping to find a PokeCenter, but all I found was pain and misery so far.

"Yeah, I am a bit lost." I looked so mareepish! I hoped he couldn't tell.

"Oh well, since you are new to training I'm gonna assume that you're trying to make it to the Rustboro City to challenge your first gym, right?"

"Well yeah, as a matter of fact I am."

"Well then you're gonna wanna go this way." He turned my body 180 degrees around basically pointing me to go back the way I came.

"Really?"

"Well don't you have a map?"

"Umm, I don't think so." I pulled my backpack around front and put my hand in it. As soon as I put my hand in it I felt something plastic and square. I pulled it out and it looked like a small laptop. I opened it and it immediately turned on showing a route and a red little dot in the middle of the screen.

"Okay so the red dot represents you. Okay now I'm gonna show you the way you're gonna wanna take to get to Rustboro. So you're on Route 112 right now. You're going to wanna go to Route 111. You're gonna see that you can either go through a cave or through a desert. Go through the desert as it will cut your time in half, and you'll be in Mauville City." As he talked he drew the route that I should take with his finger.

"Wait, isn't that desert filled with, you know, super tough Pokemon, that a trainer like me in no way could handle?" I was getting kinda nervous. I didn't want to become a meal for the local Gligar and Gliscor that lived there.

"No, not at all. The desert is a cake walk, especially this time of year. Even a trainer with only a newly hatched Togepi could make it through that desert and come out unscathed." He winked and gave me a thumbs up.

"Well if you say so…"

"I do say so, and once you get to Mauville City I'll give you the rest."

"Wait, how are you gonna give me the rest, if you're gonna be somewhere else?"

"Well there are such things as cell phones." He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled his number on it, and then handed it to me. "Au revoir!" He and his Lucario then turned and started walking towards what my maps said was Fallarbor Town.

I turned the way toward the desert and started walking until I heard Lucas's voice again all I heard was "desert" and "night". Oh well. I'm sure it wasn't important.


	4. Into the Desert

The walk along Route 112 was rather uneventful. Apparently Torchic make for rather awkward attackers. The only attacks Oliver knew were Scratch and Growl. When Oliver tries to use Scratch he has to stand on one leg and scratch with the other, which sets up for any easy counter in the form of Tackle, and whenever those counter Tackles hit I have to listen to the sound of a crying chick for the next five minutes. Trust me; it is not a pleasant sound. That brings me to his Growl attack. He doesn't even growl, it's more of a gurgle of his throat. I'm sure that'll send all of the wild Pokemon running.

Oliver was a Fire type, so shouldn't he technically know some Fire type moves. I mean its common knowledge that Fire types learn Fire attacks. Am I right? I know I'm right. Anyway, the only other attacks that my Pokedex said Oliver knew were Crush Claw and Night Slash. I never even heard of those attacks, and when I commanded Oliver to use them it didn't surprise me that he just looked at me quizzically and continued on his merry way. This had to be a test though. It was to determine the weak from the strong, the persistent from the feeble, and I am neither weak nor feeble. Soon Oliver would learn some Fire attacks. Yes, and then he'll evolve into a Combusken, and then again into…a Blaziken. I had somewhat forgotten that he evolves into the demon fowl known as Blaziken. But there were ways to stop evolution, right? I'll just need to find out one of those ways.

"Torchic!" Oliver's cry broke me out of my chain of thoughts, and I looked in his direction. A wild Poochyena had approached Oliver, and Oliver was actually fighting the pooch and not running behind my leg. Maybe because this Poochyena was quite smaller than any of the other ones we encountered, but hey it's all about the effort.

The Poochyena lunged at Oliver showing off its large teeth. His teeth then started to glow black and he bit into Oliver's torso, or midsection, or whatever that parts called on a bird. Oliver cried out in pain as the teeth bit deep into his body. What was this mad dog doing? None of the other Poochyena on the way could use this kind of attack. "Oliver return!" I held up Oliver's Pokeball and pointed at him, returning him at once. The little puppy then diverted its fury towards me. It lurched forward with the same black colored teeth and tried to bite me, but due to its small size I easily dodged. I didn't know what to do so I kicked it. That's right, I kicked the little booger. My Torchic may not be able to do a lot of damage, but my foot sure can. I only kicked a few feet away from me. I only wanted to stop it from attacking me, not destroy its rib cage. The evil dog just got up shook itself off then started running away. I was pretty sure that was going to happen. I've always heard that Poochyena will turn tail and run if their prey ever starts fighting them.

I let Oliver back out of his Pokeball. He looked around making sure that the Poochyena was nowhere in sight. "He's gone Oliver." The bird then let out what sounded to me like a sigh. We then continued on our journey towards the desert. I looked up at the sky and it was painted with all kinds of pinks, oranges and red, soon to be painted pitch black, which meant shelter would have to be found soon. Then I remembered what Lucas said. I heard "desert" and "night." Surely he must've meant to say to journey the desert at night. That makes sense doesn't it? Well it does to me, and that's all that matters.

I pulled out my map and looked at it. We were still a bit away from the desert, but that was okay, because that gave Oliver some more chances to train. Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for Oliver), not a lot of wild Pokemon showed up, save the ever common Wurmple, who's weakness was its oh so soft underside, which Oliver figured out when trying to kick the thing. Even still, the training they provided wasn't much. As a matter of fact it was worse than that of all the other wild Pokemon. Surely there had to be an easier way to train.

Then a crossroad came. To the right was the entrance to the cave and to the right was the desert. Although the desert was open to the light the moon provided, the cave seemed so much more inviting, seeing it lacked the howling winds and endless looking amount of sand, but Lucas's directions were clear. The short and safe way was through the desert…at night…with no one to notice you disappearing. Oh Arceus, I'm just spooking myself out. I took my first step onto the sand and my heart started racing.

No explosion. No instantaneous death. No anything. It really was safe. And I could see the glow of Mauville's City lights across the horizon. The walk would only be about two to three hours, and that's really short compared to the long, winding cave which I probably would've taken if Lucas hadn't warned me. Thank you Lucas.

Oliver took a step, and automatically noticed that his foot left a slight footprint. He grew giddy with this new information and started running around in a circle creating what he thought to be the most awesome thing ever.

"Okay Oliver let's get moving. We don't wanna waste too much time leaving our footprints in the sand. I wanna get to Mauville city as fast as humanly possible." Oliver looked at me then continued running in circles leaving his footprints in the sand. "Oliver, we don't have time for this." I knelt down and picked him up placing him in my backpack. It might've been slightly uncomfortable because he kept readjusting himself, but he must've found a good spot because after a few minutes I could hear a light snore coming from behind me. And with Oliver safely snuggled into my backpack and Mauville City a hop, skip, and a jump away, I started my journey into the desert.


	5. Demon of the Desert

Despite the fact that I was scared thirty minutes ago, I was no longer fearing the desert. It was actually in a word pretty. The dunes of sand and the light coming from Mauville City made for an awesome sight. There were also small odd shaped boulders sitting out of the ground that had odd looking pores towards one end of the rock. Oliver continued to snooze in my backpack, while I did all the work.

I was somewhat wondering why more people weren't out here. It was nice and cool and the darkness wasn't the kind of darkness under your bed that hides a monster. It was kind of a soothing darkness that seemed somewhat inviting. I could actually see the moon and hundreds of twinkling stars in the night sky. I was used to the heat and thick smog that Lavaridge Town packed into its small, little community. I was even considering lying down and taking a nap. That is until I heard light footsteps in the sand behind me.

I turned around, but I didn't see anything except a small orange stone sticking out of the ground, but I've seen those rocks before, so it was nothing to worry about. But just to be safe I pulled Oliver out of my backpack into my arms. He opened his eyes slowly looking at me, and did what I guess was a yawn. Even though Oliver wasn't much of a fighter, it still comforted me to know I had a Pokemon awake just in case. "Oliver you don't mind staying awake, do you?" He let out one of his little, birdie sighs in response. "Hey bud, don't give me that. I've been carrying you around for the majority of the day, and I'm going to be carrying you now, so the least you can do it stay awake." The little bird just ruffled his feathers in what I guess was a bird pout.

After an hour passed, I stopped to take a rest, but when I stopped, I heard the light footsteps again. I turned around and saw another one of those small orange rocks sitting in the sand. The only problem was that I hadn't passed one of those rocks in about forty minutes. So only there was only one reasonable explanation. The rock was following me.

I started walking again, but listened hard to the surrounding sounds. There they were. The footsteps had returned, but I was gonna catch the whatever-it-was in the act. I turned around abruptly. I caught the thing off guard, and it opened its mouth in surprise. I stared down the largest mouth I have ever seen complete with a full set of razor sharp teeth. The other odd thing was that the odd creature was way below my waist, yet possessed a head and a set of teeth, that Tyranitar couldn't even boast about. What happened next was surprising, appalling, and just my kind of bad luck.

The little, orange beast lunged, well at least tried to lunge, and somehow latched with its powerful jaws to my left shoe. I started to move, but the sudden movement caused it to bite even harder into my shoe, and it was now starting to break through the fabric of my shoes. I tried my best not to scream in terror, but my best wasn't good enough.

I let out a scream that I swear the residents of Mauville could have probably heard. What happened next not only scared me, but it also seemed to scare Oliver, and the wild beast. The cacti came along.

They moved slowly across the desert, but it seemed the second I screamed, every cactus in the desert came alive, and they were all headed in my direction. Apparently for the desert attaching an evil, walking bear trap on my shoe wasn't good enough. It also had to send out monster cacti after me, too. I was starting to think that Lucas might've said, "Don't go at night." That would've made more sense. So I did what most people would do. I ran.

Or at least I tried to. The little monster on my foot was pretty heavy for an ankle weight, and every time I moved, it tightened its grip even more on my foot. Oh Arceus what have I done to deserve this?

There was only one thing left to do. I immediately started flailing my leg in the air, which was pretty hard to do, thanks to the creature's weight, but I was hoping its weight would be its downfall. Eventually my shoe loosened and the weight of the orange fiend dragged it off my foot. As soon as my shoe was off, I tightened my grip on Oliver and got ready to run like the wind.

Unfortunately, standing directly in front of me was one of the cacti. It leveled its arms at me and let loose a barrage of white needle-like attacks. Immediately, I dropped to the ground narrowly dodging the sharp attacks. I looked behind me to see that the monster aspiring to be an ankle weight had long since hightailed it out of danger's way, so it left only this evil scarecrow looking cactus with Oliver and I.

Oliver squirmed his way out of my arms and took in a deep breath of air. I thought he was getting ready to attempt to leave me and take off into who knows where, but instead he unleashed little orbs of fire straight at the cactus creature. It was too slow to dodge the attack so it took it full force straight in the face. It brought its arms to its face to try and quell the burning, but I think the rubbing only made it worse, probably because of all the needles sticking out of its arms. With this fresh opportunity, I grabbed Oliver and started to book it out of there.

I heard a sound from behind me that sounded like something was forcing its way through the sand, but I was too busy running to really give a care. I passed several other of the demonic cacti while running, but there slow movements didn't really help them catch me. I ran and I ran. Mauville's lights were getting closer and close. This nightmare was about to end, it would only be a few—

Just then the orange bobble head looking demon jumped from behind me, latching onto my right shoe. I looked around me; it seemed that my view was cactus free for now. Now I had to deal with the beastie on the heel of my shoe trying to make a snack out of my feet.

It gnawed and started to dig deeper into my shoe. I lifted my foot and started shaking it hoping that my shoe would fall off again, but this time the brute bit with quite some force breaking all the way through the fabric of my shoe and digging into my skin with its bare teeth. Oliver was now shaking with intense fright in my arms, burrowing himself deep into my chest as if to get away from the current scene. There was only one thing to do. Fight back.

I somewhat gently tossed Oliver to the side then grabbed the flashlight from backpack and used all my strength to bring my foot up to a horizontal level. I then proceeded to try and hit the thing with my flashlight. The little devil just let go of my foot and I ended up hitting my already bleeding foot. I quickly glanced to behind, and Mauville was so close yet so far. I then turned my attention back towards the rogue Pokemon. It had turned its attention to Oliver and had its mouth wide open. This thing was about to try and make chicken strips out of my Torchic. That was not acceptable.

I tried to kick the thing, with my left foot of course, but that was the worst thing anyone could've done. It had a pretty hard shell, and hard shell on soft foot did little to the monster and a lot to me. Now both of my feet were in pain, and it had now diverted its attention back to me. This time with no shoes on my feet and cuts and bruises already on my feet that thing would surely break my foot easily. It opened its mouth preparing to lunge. Just then bright bolts of fire hit it knocking it to the side, and somewhat confusing it.

Oliver's beak was dripping with flames from the attack it used earlier to stop the cactus, and now it was just used to save my foot. Now with this we could finally get somewhere. I dug into my backpack and pulled out an umbrella this time. Things were actually starting to go right. I extended the umbrella to its full length without opening the actual umbrella part. Who said a Pokemon couldn't double battle with its trainer.

The thing's body started glowing light blue, and I could feel the sand underneath us moving. The sand started climbing up my body. I tried moving, but whenever I did the sand would just tighten on me and start spreading up my body even faster. Another Fire attack was launched from Oliver at the creature. This caused it to lose its focus and the sand around me loosened allowing me to get out. I then brought my umbrella down on our assaulter's head. Oh if PETP saw what I did today, they would have a fit.

Oliver unleashed another wave of fire towards the desert demon, but this time it just dug underground. This was our chance. This was our chance for freedom. In a flash, I dropped my umbrella and I picked up Oliver and started sprinting again. The pain in my feet were getting worse with each step I took, but the adrenaline rushing throughout my body permitted me to keep going despite the intense pain. Before I could make it out of the desert though, the big mouthed terror resurfaced right in front of the scenery change between the desert and the route leading to Mauville City. This thing really wanted us dead.

Oliver released his Fire attack once again. I could feel the warmth in his body as he shot the small fire orbs toward the burrowing menace. The heat was actually invigorating, but the orange creature didn't think so as it was burned on the left side of its back. I placed Oliver down again, and this time the fight between us and that, that monster, would be for keeps. The only long object I had with me was my belt and it would have to do for now. I took my belt off and whipped it around as if I was some experienced Pokemon tamer, like the ones I've seen on TV. The thing looked at me, which left it wide open for an attack from Oliver as my little Torchic managed to land another fiery hit on it. It then turned its head back to him, which I responded to with a lash of my belt. There was no way he could handle both of us.

Well that's what I thought until he vanished into thin air. I then felt a sharp pain in my right ankle. The thing had somehow moved behind me and was now biting hard into my ankle. Thankfully it couldn't get good enough positioning, or else it would've snapped right through my leg. Oliver moved surprisingly quick and started scratching its underside, which seemed to be very effective, because with each scratch, his grip weakened. Eventually he let go and he turned to face Oliver. He opened his mouth wide open and a ball of pure light started to form in his mouth. Whatever it was, I didn't like it.

Then Oliver did something unexpected. He opened his beak and released a full barrage of the fiery cinders into the walking torture device's mouth causing the small light ball to explode. This time it was the creature's turn to howl in pain, or more so make a clicking noise in pain.

This may have been a cheap shot, but I started to lash out on the biting animal hoping it would either run away or faint, but of course neither of the two happened. It more so got really pissed. This time its body grew a brilliant blue and the sand underneath me nearly engulfed me instantly. It was creeping up my face and would soon cover my mouth and nose making it impossible for me to breath. Oliver let loose a barrage of small burning attacks, but they didn't even faze the little cretin. It seemed to be fixed on killing me before the night was over.

"Oliver, do something!" I was yelling and frantic! I couldn't help but scream and freak out! I didn't care if it attracted those demon cactuses or whatever else lived in this cursed desert. Just then Oliver's eyes started to glow a demonic red. The look on his face changed from a helpless look to a sadistic smile. He released an immense amount of fire at the creature that engulfed its whole body. This was all too confusing. What was wrong with Oliver?

The sand around my body started to fall away and I was free once again. I watched as the wall of fire where the horrible monster once stood swayed around. Just then it sped out of the flames hitting Oliver directly. Oliver flew and skidded to a stop unconscious. It was just me and the desert demon.

It glared at me and tried walking towards me, but ultimately failed. It had used most of its energy fighting me and Oliver at the same time, and then finally enduring Oliver's powerful Fire type attack and lashing back with that attack. Its body then started glowing blue, and the familiar feel of cold sand climbing up my body returned, but this time it was much slower. There was only one last hope. I reached back into my backpack pulling out the Ultra Ball that my sister had given to me. Ultra Balls have tripled the catch rate of a normal Pokeball according to my dad. I would need all the help for this. I tossed the yellow and black ball right at the monster. It saw it coming. I don't know if it didn't have enough energy to move out of the way, or just thought that this night was too fun and it wanted plenty of nights like it in the future. Whatever the reason it didn't matter because the ball hit him right in the face and engulfed him completely.

The ball wobbled weakly. Once. Twice. Thrice. It then stopped wobbling and a little _bing_ sound could be heard. I claim you as mine Demon of the Desert. I then picked up the Ultra Ball and then returned my knocked out Oliver to his own Pokeball. With all of that done, I started limping towards Mauville City.


	6. No Pain No Gain

I walked into the Mauville PokeCenter at 1 o' clock in the morning completely battered and bruised. My right foot was still bleeding because every time I took a step the wounds would reopen. I was swaying from exhaustion and the pain that ached through my whole body was starting to make my entire being go numb. I'm sure I was a sight for sore eyes. My bare feet covered in mud and sand were starting to swell. Sweat was dripping from every inch of my body which actually just made the sand stick to my body even more, and my shirt was slightly singed from Oliver's stray Fire attacks. The Nurse Joy looked up from her magazine about medical equipment.

"How may I help…" The cheery smile on her face faded as soon as she saw the shape I was in. She hit a button on my desk, and almost immediately a horde of Chanseys and Blisseys emerged from the back room rolling along a stretcher as well. They huddled around me clamoring something in their Pokémon language. They all grabbed me with their soft, rubbery, pink hands and hoisted me onto the stretcher. As soon as I was flat on the stretcher, sleep embraced me like a long lost friend.

…

I was sitting on a stool in a white room that had nothing else in it. No windows, no door, no anything. I heard a sound and turned around to see what it was.

"Help me." A little girl in a white sundress was sitting in a chair staring at me and asking me to help her. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail with a green bow. She looked no older than three or four, but her gray eyes looked old and as if they had seen countless things.

"Well then come over so I can help you." I motioned for her to come, but she just sat still and kept staring.

"Why won't you help me?"

"I'm trying to. Since you won't come to me, then I'll come to you." I tried getting up, but I had no control over my legs. I couldn't even feel they were there. I tried reaching out with my arm, but still no response. I let out a sigh frustrated. "What do you need help with?"

"I can't tell you that." She giggled and got up, then started running circles around me. "That is I can't tell you that until you catch me." She laughed harder and extended her arms out running around as if she was an airplane.

"Why can't you just tell me?"

"Oh no, no, no. That's not allowed in this game. You have to catch me if you wanna win, and once you catch me you win the prize. I'll tell you what my problem is." That didn't sound like a real prize in my opinion, but just then I could feel the feeling coming back in my arms. I reached out, but just before I touched her, she turned to dust and blew away.

"Why aren't you helping me?"

…

I woke up with a jolt and was slightly confused. I looked around me and I saw all types of medical equipment. To the left of me I saw Oliver's Pokeball sitting on a silver dish. I tried to reach it but it was pretty painful to move. My right foot was hanging in a sling inside of a cast. When I looked to the right I saw my monster Pokémon sleeping heavily on a bed much smaller than mine. It was hooked up to a whole bunch of monitors and it was breathing heavily.

Just then a Nurse Joy walked into the room. "Ah. I see you're awake." She walked towards me and adjusted my foot in the sling. "You were quite roughed up when you came in here this morning. You and your Pokémon must have gone through quite an ordeal."

Immediately I was reminded of Oliver who had been knocked unconscious during our expedition through the desert. "Is my Pokemon okay?" I asked frantically wondering if Oliver had any serious injuries.

"If you're referring to the Trapinch, then he's in a pretty bad condition, and we're gonna have to monitor him for a few days. He's got a few amounts of burns, and there is some internal bleeding. If you are talking about your Torchic though, then he will be just fine. It was a standard fainted Pokemon. He just needed a little rest." Did she say Trapinch? Is that what the thing was called, a Trapinch? Did she also call it a he? I didn't know evil, monster devils could have genders.

I looked back at the Trapinch. Had we over done it while we were trying to defend ourselves? It, I mean he, did look pretty beat up. So now I was gonna have to wait a few days before I could even continue my journey to Rustboro. Oh great! Not only did I have an evil, new Pokemon on my team, I also was gonna be slowed down by its injuries.

"But you should be worried about yourself as well." She looked at me and lightly tapped my foot. "Both of your feet were pretty badly beaten. Your left foot was swollen, but it went down after we applied some ice on it. Don't worry though you're only going to be with crutches for a week. I'll go get them for you. I'll be right back." She exited the room and left for what I guess was the crutches.

Just then my Trapinch started to stir. He turned his head towards me with a confused look on his face. He let out a loud click sound, and chomped his mouth several times. Was he saying he wanted to eat me? He tried moving, but his body was kept on the bed with restraints luckily for me. Trapinch just stared at me. I couldn't really read his emotions, because his face stayed the same. It always had a toothy smile and it's never changed. It was actually kinda scary yet cute at the same time now that I could see him in full light. Both of us wanted to get at the other one, but at the same time we were locked in place. He opened his jaws again. I guess he realized I was so close yet so far. We were only about two feet apart from each other, but there was no possible way we could get to each other.

Nurse Joy then reentered the room holding her a silver pair of crutches. "Although your Trapinch needs to stay here, you're free to explore Mauville while we take care of him. But remember you can't leave. We will need to check your foot every night for the next week to make sure it heals properly." She helped me out of my sling and embarrassingly helped me get on my freshly washed clothes. "Don't forget your Torchic." She picked up the Pokeball beside my bed and placed it in my hand. With that she left out of the room.

"Come on out Oliver." In a flash of white light, my little Torchic was standing on the ground beside my foot. He started pecking at my cast trying to figure out what it was.

"Chic!" He squealed as he found out that my cast was actually pretty hard. He then saw the Trapinch in the bed beside me, and started cheeping furiously.

"Oliver calm down. That thing is a part of our team now, even if it did try to have us for dinner. But it doesn't matter now because we are going for a walk." I grabbed my crutches and started towards the doors. The automatic doors slid open making room for me and Oliver to pass.

We exited the PokeCenter and entered the large concrete jungle that is known as Mauville City. Now I knew why I could see its lights all the way from the desert. Almost every single thing had lights on it. The borders of stop signs were laced with lights that blinked on and off. The sidewalks even had lights along them, like similar to how the aisles in movie theatres were lined with lights. I thought it odd that they had no street lamps, but with all these other sources of light, I guess they really didn't need them.

"Hey you." A man wearing a cheap suit was standing outside of an oddly painted building right beside the PokeCenter. "Yeah I'm talking to you with the crutches." He walked briskly over to me then stuck out his hand, then quickly pulled it back as he realized I couldn't shake it.

"How may I help you?" I asked. Oliver tilted his head to the side as he looked the man up and down, eyeing him and judging him. That attack from the demon of the desert, I mean Trapinch, was more that making him a little cautious.

"How would you react if I were to tell you that I'm having a special sale?"

I wasn't a big buyer, but my mom had trained me to always be on the lookout for sales. "What kind of special sale are we talking here?"

"Bikes!"

I looked at my foot then back at the man. He still didn't seem to get the picture so I looked at my foot again and then towards him.

"I said: Bikes! Aren't you excited?" He lifted up his arms and I could see the sweat buildup in his underarms, which wasn't a pretty sight.

"Bikes…"

"Yes, BIKES!"

He was getting a bit too excited for my taste. "If you cannot tell already, I'm not gonna be riding any bikes anytime soon." I shuffled my crutches around a little bit to signify why, since he didn't seem to get the idea before.

"Oh well, what if you bought the bike now and used it later. Bikes will help get you out of a lot of sticky situations. How many times have you been walking with your Pokemon in a nice forest, when a pack of wild Ursaring attack? Well if you had a bike, then you would be able to get away on your oh-so-convenient two wheeler.

Surely this man knew that he was a nut job. He had to know, he just had to. "Well first of all, a pack of Ursaring is known as a sleuth for your information. Second of all, I've never been attacked by a _sleuth_ of Ursaring, obviously because I'm actually alive. Ursaring don't even live in Hoenn. Thirdly I'm sure an Ursaring would have you in its claws before you had time to jump on your bike and get away. All of this is just common knowledge, save the sleuth part. Now please leave me alone." I walked around him and continued on my merry way. That was actually pretty exciting. I actually managed to not be conned by a city huckster.

After about thirty minutes of walking I came across a sign that read "Mauville City Zoo." Although I've been to this zoo about a hundred times, I still couldn't resist the urge to go in and check out the new exhibits.

Near the front of the zoo was a large open field with a few thick trees that allowed people to roam around with their Pokemon, and it actually had a variety of wild Pokemon lurking in the field or hiding in the trees such as Seedot, Poochyena, Zigzagoon, and Taillow. Of course that's not what I was here for. I was here to see the Luxray and Luxio. They weren't native to Hoenn and had an exotic feel to them.

According to the directory the Luxray were about a five minute walk from here. As we started walking, Oliver would find random popcorn kernels on the ground and peck at them until he managed to get it in his mouth. After a while he found a penny on the ground and tried to eat it. I gently nudged him with my crutch.

"Don't eat that. Trust me, it's not edible." He chirped in annoyance to the lack of edible things in the zoo.

Just then we heard a loud roar. We had reached the Luxray and Luxio exhibit. Their habitat consisted of about half an acre of open simulated savannah, with a few rocks and trees scattered all over the place, and a watering hole at the middle of their home. They were all gathered around the watering hole drinking and sparking with electricity.

"So do these Luxray and Luxio interest you?" I turned around to see a teenager who looked about seventeen wearing a dirty t-shirt and some rough looking cargo pants looking at me. I backed up somewhat scared of his appearance, and Oliver did his usual routine of hiding behind my leg, but he peaked his head around the side to try and size him up. The dirty looking boy looked down at his clothes and an expression of realization entered his face. "Oh, sorry about the clothes. I'm a breeder, and as such sometimes it means you've got to get down and dirty." He scratched his head and smiled at me. Even though he was wearing some pretty nasty clothes and Oliver had a look on his face that screamed 'Stranger Danger!' I actually believed him.

"You're a breeder?"

"Well more like the son of a breeder, but one day I plan to continue the family business of breeding. That's a cool Torchic you got there. Torchics are getting rarer and rarer by the minute. Are you thinking of selling him?" Oliver came from behind my leg and started chirping at him loudly at him. He obviously didn't like the idea of being sold to this stranger. He then backed up into my leg and started nuzzling it. He didn't seem to like the idea of being separated from me at all.

"Oliver's not for sell. He's my starter, sorry." Why was I apologizing? He should be apologizing to me for trying to buy my starter off me.

"Oh sorry I didn't know. Do you have any other Pokemon for sale?" My mind automatically thought about the Trapinch back in my room, but seeing that it was in the condition that it was in, I don't think that he would earn me a lot of money.

"Sorry but none of my Pokemon are for sale." I scooted farther away from him starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Oh, well sorry to bother you." He turned around and started to walk away.

"Wait!" An idea just occurred to me. If he was a breeder, than he would also know how to train Pokemon. He turned around looking at me. "How would you train a Pokemon to not hate you?" I'm sure the question seemed strange, but if that monster was part of the team now, I would have to find a way to prevent him from wanting to chomp down on my head.

"Well the simplest way to earn that Pokemon's respect would be to show it that you're an experienced trainer. The most used way is to teach another Pokemon you own a pretty powerful move, then show that move to the other Pokemon establishing yourself as an experienced trainer. Why?"

"Well I caught a Trapinch in the desert the other day, and it seems to, well, hate my guts and want to feast on my insides."

"Well if that's the case, then I'll be happy to assist you in teaching your Torchic a powerful move. For a price of course. That price being one grand."

I didn't have a grand. My parents barely put $750 on my trainer card. I look down somewhat disgruntled. I just needed $250 dollars to pay for it.

He looked and saw me looking down at my hospital issued shoes. I assumed he could tell that he knew I didn't even have that much yet. "Well for you, how about I make it half a grand." A smile immediately stretched across my face.

"I can pay that." He then took a business card from his back pocket and handed it to me.

"Oh by way, the name's Martin." He stuck his hand out, but just like the bike sealer, immediately brought it back to his side.

"The name's Tyler."

"Well Tyler, meet me at the address on the card tomorrow at noon." With that I started on my way back to the PokeCenter. After a while I entered through the doors of the clinic and immediately went back to my room. It was pretty dark outside now, and I could see the lights that were placed everywhere illuminate Mauville through my window.

I climbed into my bed, not worrying about my clothes, and struggled to put my cast inside the sling. I eventually got everything settled and Oliver then hopped on the bed walking all over the bed until he found a comfortable spot.

"Hey, Oliver?"

"Tor."

"Tomorrow we're gonna power you up." With that said I drifted into sleep .


	7. Sweet Dreams

"Why aren't you helping me?" I was back in the white room and the little girl had her back to me. This time I could actually move my body. I reached out and was also able to touch her shoulder. It turned her around to see that she was crying. There was a freshly cut wound on her cheek that was bleeding. "I told you to help me. Why didn't you help me?" She was crying harder now and the blood was coming out harder than before.

"You're not real. This is just a dream. I remember from last night. I don't need to help you, because you're not real." Just then a dark look came across her face. The wound on her cheek stopped bleeding and she scowled at me.

"You don't think I'm real? I'm just as real as you, or Oliver, or even the Trapinch you own. I am _very_ real!" She walked up to me in a huff and brought her arm up as if she was going to punch me, but decided against it.

"No, none of this is real! If this was real, my leg would be in a cast because my _real_ Trapinch almost bit it off. This place isn't real, none of it is." She backed up and turned around to me with a smile on her face. Her changing emotions were starting to actually kinda scare me now.

"Let's play a game." She started dancing and pirouetting as if she was an aspiring ballerina.

"What kinda game are we talking here?"

"Hide and go seek."

"I'm a bit old for hide and go seek."

Just then the room changed to a winding dark labyrinth. Torches were lined on the wall all along the maze. "You're not too old for this hide and seek, but I see you need some incentive. From the floor rose a white statue that looked eerily like Oliver. She tapped it in and it started to glow white. When the light subsided, Oliver, or a dream Oliver, was standing beside the little girl.

"What are you doing?" Oliver struggled as she picked him up. Even if this wasn't real I couldn't just stand there and watch my starter get kidnapped.

"Don't worry you'll get a partner too." A statue rose from the ground that looked exactly like my demon of the desert. "No, you don't understand. Bringing him here won't help me find you. If anything he will make things harder for me." Just then Trapinch's statue glowed brilliant white, and the familiar clicking sound of teeth hitting teeth entered my dreams.

"If you find me, I'll give you a prize." With that she started walking, and the labyrinth walls started to part so she could walk through them. They then closed, but I could still hear Oliver's frantic pleas for help.

As soon as she left, Trapinch leapt at my foot mouth open, but as soon as he got within an inch of my foot, he hit an invisible force field. He tried gnawing through it, but the force field was pretty solid. I wanted payback for the pain that this Trapinch had caused me. I bent down and tried to slap him in his face, but predictably a force field surrounded him as well. He let out a series of clicks, which were what I assumed to be laughter.

"Come on…Trapinch. Even though this place isn't real I still can't stand to see Oliver in pain like that, plus the only way we're getting out of here is by finding that crazy little girl. So if just for a moment, can we get over hating each other?" Trapinch looked as if he was thinking about it. After about what seemed to be five minutes he shook his bobble like head. "Okay then let's go."

It seemed we had been searching the maze for hours without finding her or Oliver. I was getting a bit desperate and wondering why I couldn't wake up. We came across what appeared to be our hundredth five pronged fork in the road. We decided on going down the middle one, because we were too lazy to decide on another one.

"RHY!"

"What was that?" I turned around to see a Rhyhorn was charging us head on. There was no dodging it, because its body took up the majority of the labyrinth width wise, and there was no outrunning it. So fight back was our only feasible option.

Trapinch seemed to take this into his own hands. He immediately dug underground and started heading for the Rhyhorn. Then he went completely underground, and I could no longer see the top of his head. He wasn't fighting the Rhyhorn; he was trying to get away! I started sprinting down the long corridor hoping that adrenaline rushes worked the same way in dreams. I looked back to see it was gaining on me. It would have me in

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Zero, but there was no impact, just a loud crack sound. I turned around to see the Rhyhorn was standing still, because the ground underneath it was starting to crack. Any sudden movements and it would go tumbling down however deep the hole was. Just then Trapinch busted right through the crack causing the floor where both of them were standing to cave in, and both went tumbling down a dizzying height of…three feet, but hey it was good enough for me. Trapinch hadn't been trying to get away. He was trying to set up a trap. Oh wow. His name actually makes sense to me now.

I walked over to the whole to see Trapinch climbing its way up and the Rhyhorn on its back struggling to flip over. It then started to glow with a dull red light. It started splitting into two distinct forms. A bird shaped form and a small human shaped form. Oliver and that crazy little girl. I immediately jumped down into the hole right next to the girl and Oliver. She smiled crazily and got up while brushing herself off. "You caught me, so now you get the prize." She pulled out a card from thin air and handed it to me. I looked at the card and it read:

Rustboro City

That's it? That was what I've been trying to get this whole time. I was already planning to go to Rustboro City. This was a pile of crap.

"Oh I almost forgot." She turned around and used a rock beside me as a stepping stone getting on top of it. She was now able to look me dead in my eyes. "You said none of this was real." She ran her finger over her cheek wound and the blood smeared on her finger. She then wiped it on my left cheek having drawn a slash mark with blood. "Well anyways…bye."

And with that I woke up.


	8. An Aerial Assault

I looked around me to make sure I wasn't back in that white room and I wasn't. I was back in my hospital room with my freshly woken Torchic and now awake Trapinch. It was kind of odd that we all woke up at the same time, but it's good for teams to be synchronized. I awkwardly got my cast out of its sling and achieved a sitting position. A Nurse Joy entered the room to check up on my Trapinch and me.

"Good afternoon Tyler. How are you?" She walked over to my Trapinch and adjusted some of the wires that were connected to his body and placed a piece of raw meat in his mouth which he devoured ferociously and quickly.

"I'm fine. Wait…did you say 'Good afternoon.' Oh no! I was supposed to meet that Martin guy at noon. What time is it?" I grabbed Oliver's empty Pokeball and shoved it in my pocket. I reached down grabbing my crutches and got up.

"It's 12:30. Where do you have to get to in such a rush?" I handed her the business card that had his address on it. "Oh dear. That's quite a walk from here, and there's no way I'm letting you walk there on crutches. You'll have to catch the bus."

"Well when's the next bus gonna come?" I was already up and I was now hobbling towards the door.

"The next bus should be here in about fifteen minutes. And the bus stop is just across the street. Oh, I almost forgot to ask you. What happened to your cheek?" On my way out of the doors I could see my reflection on the windows. My left cheek had been cut about three inches and it was still bleeding a little bit, but it was mostly covered in dry blood. Wait, didn't that crazy girl draw a slash mark on my face with her blood? No it couldn't be that. Oliver had just probably scratched me with his foot on accident while we were sleeping. Now that I think about it, he was at the end of the bed, but that doesn't matter now. I'm going to be late for my training session.

I rushed out the front door and crossed the street barely looking across. Horns were honking at me as people stopped their cars even though they had the green light. Pedestrians always have the right away…even if I am j-walking. I reached the bus stop with ten minutes to spare, which meant that I rushed for nothing. Better safe than sorry. I sat down on one the metal benches as I awaited the bus.

While I was sitting an older man around the age of sixty sat beside me. Oliver hopped on my lap and eyed the man cautiously from the corner of his eyes. The old man coughed a bit then looked towards me.

"So you're an aspiring trainer, huh?" His voice was raspy and it sounded as if he had more than his far share of cigarettes. Also his yellow teeth and smoky breath were a pretty dead giveaway as well, but whatever.

"Yeah. I'm gonna try to get all eight badges in Hoenn." I was holding my breath to avoid breathing the breath he was spewing out. They say Charizard have the worst breath out of all the living things out there. I'm not sure if this decrepit, old specimen could count as living, but his breath sure beat any Charizard's breathe I've smelt, and I've smelt the breath of a lot of Charizards.

"Oh, well I was just wondering. Just be careful. I have a grandson out there trying to become a trainer as well. His dad, my son, died while my grandson was only three years old. He died while trying to win the Kanto Conference. On his way to win the Virdian Gym, he stumbled into the territory of a Nidoking and died." I didn't know how to respond to that, and luckily for me the bus pulled up right at the same time he finished his tale of woe. I practically jumped up and hobbled with my crutches on the bus, which was pretty hard. I grabbed a seat right behind the bus driver and the old man walked on the bus moving slowly. Every time he took one step, another person would've been able to take four steps. He then decided that the Nidoking death story wasn't enough, and sat right beside me. When he sat down a puff of air rose from his body that smelled like dust. I sat for about twenty minutes listening to the old man's tales about how well his grandson was doing. The only thing that I actually got out of it was his grandson's name was Jacob Iverson.

Just then I looked out the window and the scene had gotten much more rural. After about another ten minutes of listening to how his grandson was an excellent trainer and how his starter was a Bulbasaur, and blah blah blah.

Finally the bus stopped. This was just the place I needed to get off at. "Excuse me, but this is my stop Mister." The old man took his time slowly getting up and allowing me passage. I grabbed my crutches and haphazardly got off the bus. I somewhat wondered if that man only stayed on the bus to tell me more about his grandson, because this was the last stop.

When I got off the bus the only thing I could see was a ranch, and trust me when I say: it was _gargantuan_. Pokemon grazed upon grassy knolls, while others were drinking out of a pond. I would love to own a place like this. The Pokemon actually looked happy, unlike the Poke—

"You're late." I turned around to see Martin was walking towards me, but he was wearing a different pair of clothes. He was wearing a blue t-shirt, cargo pants, and large, thick gloves. Just then a blur of red and blue flew down and landed on his arm. "I told you to be here at noon."

I sighed as I began to tell about my adventure trying to get here. "I'm sorry! I woke up late and then I had to catch the bus, but an old man got on it too and was telling me all these bor—"

"Okay I get it. Let's just get to the training." He stroked the bird that landed on his glove and it started to coo.

"So what move should Oliver learn?" Oliver was looking at the blue and red bird and I think he was wondering why he couldn't be on my hand like that.

"Well I gave some thought into it, and initially I thought we should teach him a move like Flamethrower, but it's obvious that he's not that experienced—"

"Hey!" Both I and Oliver were perturbed by the fact that he would go and call us that. Even though we've only been training for a few days, there was a _bunch_ of experience packed in those days.

"Chillax. Like I was saying, you guys _are_ inexperienced, so I'm gonna try and teach you a move that's pretty decent in power and quite easy to learn. It's a move known as Aerial Ace." The red and blue bird's body started glowing white with energy then shot off of Martin's arms and started moving at a speed I wasn't able to keep up with leaving a trail of white light.

"That's supposed to be easy?" Oliver seemed to agree with me. It did seem pretty hard. Moving around at those speeds, ha. Oliver could hardly keep up with me on crutches.

"Now we battle. I think the best way to learn how to use a move is training in battle. When practicing in desperation, you do what you need to survive, and learning a new move becomes a whole lot easier." I remembered how Oliver learned Ember when fighting my Trapinch in the desert. I guess he did learn it because he was desperate.

He led me and Oliver to a grassy field with a few boulders here and there. I pulled out my Pokedex and scanned the flying bird to see what it was and what it could do.

Pokedex entry:  
_Taillow, the Tiny Swallow Pokémon  
Taillow courageously stands its ground against foes, however strong they may be. ThisgutsyPokémon will remain defiant even after a loss. On the other hand, it cries loudly if it becomes hungry.  
LV15  
Known Moves:  
-Wing Attack = 60  
-Quick Attack = 40  
-Aerial Ace = 60  
-Peck =35  
-Steel Wing = 70_

Hmm, so that's what that thing was. I then pointed my Pokedex at Oliver to see how he's grown and how he would match against the Taillow.

Pokedex entry:  
_Torchic, the Chick Pokémon  
Torchic sticks with its Trainer, following behind with unsteady steps. This Pokémon breathes fire of over 1,800 degrees F, including fireballs that leave the foe scorched black._  
_LV 11  
Known Moves:  
-Scratch =40  
-Ember = 40  
-Crush Claw = 75  
-Night Slash =70  
-Focus Energy = N/A_

Even though Crush Claw and Night Slash were the most powerful attacks Oliver knew, he couldn't even use them. This battle would probably be really quick.

"Alright Taillow use Steel Wing." Martin called.

"Okay use Scratch Oliver."

Both of our Pokémon started towards each other. Taillow's wings started getting a metallic sheen to them. The Taillow had the advantage of being in the air while Oliver was landlocked. The hard-as-metal wings hit Oliver head on, and then Taillow was back in the air before Oliver could strike back. Things were already looking bleak.

"Go in with Aerial Ace." Martin had a sly grin on his face like he knew something I didn't.

"Oliver, dodge then use Ember." If there was one thing I knew Oliver was good at it was dodging. All that practice of quickly moving behind my leg when we meet a stranger or when a wild Pokemon attacks he managed to run away while dodging all their attacks. Surely he could dodge the Taillow.

The Taillow started to glow a bright white like earlier, and then it started moving so fast I thought it disappeared. While I was keeping my eyes in the sky I heard a cry from Oliver. Before he even had a chance to move and dodge the attack, the Taillow was already on him. Luckily for me, Oliver quickly rebounded and shot a barrage of burning cinders into the air, which caught the Taillow off guard, injuring its left wing.

"Oliver now try using your own Aerial Ace." I was somewhat hoping that Oliver had reached the same amount of desperation he had when we were facing the Trapinch in the desert, though this wasn't nearly as dangerous.

Oliver started to run towards where the Taillow had landed, but he eventually ended up tripping over his feet, falling face first into the grass. The Taillow and his trainer stifled their laughs at my Torchic's failed attempt. Oliver got up and his face appeared pretty flustered, but he started running towards the Taillow again, but he got no further and ended up face planting again. He got and spat out some the grass that was in his mouth. This time the small bird and its owner couldn't hold it in, and both of them started bursting out laughing.

Oliver turned to me with tears starting to swell in his eyes. He started to run to me trying to get to me, but alas, the cruel hand of fate dealt judgment once more and he fell again. This time the Taillow and its trainer were on the ground laughing hysterically. Oliver got up again full of embarrassment, but this time his embarrassment turned to rage. His whole body became surrounded in a blue aura, and then the blue all concentrated on his beak. His beak then doubled in size and he started racing across the grassy field. Taillow and Martin stopped laughing as they realized that Oliver had achieved a weak version of Aerial Ace with the help of Focus Energy and the embarrassment he felt.

"Come on get in the air Taillow." The Tiny Swallow Pokemon tried getting up in the air, but its wing was pretty burnt from the Ember attack. It watched helplessly as my oncoming Torchic smashed it into the boulder behind it. The Taillow was now trapped between a rock and a hard place, that hard place being my Torchic. Oliver than opened his mouth and released orbs of fire right into the Taillow's face. The close range of the attack was bound to have caused massive damage. Oliver backed up from the Taillow and it fell limp too exhausted to continue moving.

Oliver ran back to me and surprisingly managed to make it all the way back to me without tripping. I dropped my crutches and picked him up and embraced him, happy that he was already starting to get the gist of Aerial Ace, and we won our first trainer battle, too. He killed two birds with one stone, or should I say one Oliver.

Martin returned his Taillow to its Pokeball and walked over to me. "See I told you that it's when desperation starts to kick in a Pokémon reaches its full potential. Well, that's all for today. Come back at noon tomorrow, and next time, actually show up on time. Now get out of here."

I placed Oliver back on the ground and picked up my crutches, and we headed for a good place to celebrate.


	9. A Graceful Beauty

Two days had passed since my first training experience with Martin, and since then me, Oliver, and Trapinch have done exceedingly well. I'm able to get around without crutches, but I still must wear a special shoe on my right foot that softens the impact of stepping on the ground. Oliver was actually starting to use Aerial Ace without using Focus Energy first. And now Trapinch was also able to leave the PokeCenter, but I still haven't decided if that's good news or bad news.

We were all sitting down at a table in the PokeCenter enjoying a nice breakfast. After I saw Trapinch ravenously eat a raw piece of Tauros meat yesterday, I lost my appetite for meat. I was enjoying a nice stack of pancakes, while Oliver was picking over some Sunflora seeds and sometimes roasting them before eating them. Trapinch had to be content with grilled Magikarp, since they no longer gave him premium beef, since he was no longer sick or in horrible condition.

I looked out the window and the sky looked rather bleak, with the sun being covered by clouds, and the only thing there to remind you that it was still there was its ghostly pale glow through the clouds which seemed to actually add to the depressed feel.

Martin had cancelled on account of there might be some bad weather, but the sky wasn't moving. It didn't rain and the clouds failed to make way for the sun brilliant rays. The sky just stayed the same, as if someone had painted the sky with a single color: gray.

I was planning on celebrating all of us being able to do stuff, but the weather outside just made me want to stay inside and play cards, but I refused to stay in this hospital full of sick and injured Pokemon, and often times trainers as well.

A drop of water hit the window I was looking at it. Just then a sheet of water the Great God of Rain, Kyogre, couldn't have created better fell upon Mauville City drenching everything it touched. People were running around trying to find a place to stay dry. It was kind of funny watching the pandemonium that a rainstorm could bring with it. The funny thing is, though Mauville receives tremendous amount of rain, Lavaridge receives barely any. I wonder why that is. It's like Kyogre's boundary of where he can rain on stops right there.

I turned to see that both of my Pokemon looked at the rain as if it was the beginning of Judgment from Arceus. It was just a rainstorm and nothing more, surely they couldn't be afraid of drops of water no bigger than the tip of my fingers. I knew that Oliver was a Fire type and Trapinch was a Ground type, but seriously being afraid of the rain.

Oliver stopped eating his seeds and hopped up in my lap snuggling into my shirt to keep warm. I could feel that the more heat was coming out of him than usual, which I assumed was because of the rain. My Trapinch stared at us for a few minutes trying to resist the urge of acting like he was a part of this family now, but he failed. He clambered up the table dropping Magikarp chunks from his mouth in the process. He crawled across the table then fell in my lap right beside Oliver, who, by the way, was much lighter than my desert demon. Unlike Oliver his skin or shell or whatever his exterior was, was hard and cold to the touch. He tried nestling into me and Oliver but Oliver retreated from his cold body, moving farther up onto my right arm. I felt bad for my Trapinch so I wrapped my left arm around him, despite it being quite uncomfortable for me. He let out a few soft clicks then laid his head down, and within a few seconds soft snoring could be heard.

The rain was starting to let up and people were starting to come out of their hiding places and continue on their merry way. I couldn't see very clearly through the window, but I saw a blurry mass moving towards the PokeCenter door.

_Swish._ The doors opened and in walked a girl who looked around my age with dark brown hair that stopped at the middle of her back. She wore a black blouse and a white skirt. Water dripped from every part of her body as she started to shake her arms in a poor attempt to get dry.

She started walking in my direction. Her black flip flops making a squish-squash sound instead of their normal flip-flop. I looked around and noticed that all the other tables were filled with wet trainers and their irritated Pokemon. The only table that had room for her was my table.

She sat down and looked at me with her brown hair plastered to her face. "Hi." She had spoken to me. I ended up dropping Trapinch on my right foot, but even though it caused excruciating pain, I didn't really care. I noticed her eyes were a dark shade of green. Oliver then pecked my arm bringing me back into reality.

"Hi." My heart started racing as she smiled at me then turned her attention to the window. "So…did you get caught in the rainstorm?" Stupid, stupid, stupid. Of course she got caught in the rainstorm, why else would she be soaking wet?

"Oh, yeah. I was practicing my Contest Appeals, until the rain came down on us like no other downpour I have seen before." She participated in contests? I was not a big fan of contests, but for her I would change. I smiled weakly trying to think of something to say back to her, until I had noticed Trapinch was gone.

When I dropped him, he must have wondered off somewhere. "You, um, have to excuse me. I just, uh, lost my Trapinch." I placed Oliver on the floor and we both started walking to find my Trapinch.

"I'll help."

"What?"

"I said: I'll help. By the way, my name's Naomi." She wanted to help me find my desert demon. She did not even know me, and she was willing to help me.

"Oh, hi. My name's, umm, Tyler."

"Well I'm bored Tyler. I just down want to stare out the foggy window at a drenched Mauville. I'm sure I have someone who can help. Come on out Diablo." She pulled out a Pokeball that was mostly blue but had two strips of red on it, and tapped it.

It opened and released a stream of white light that formed the shape of a dog. The only dog Pokemon I know that's around the size of the thing coming out was Archie, but even still the shaping was all wrong. When in doubt, always take the Pokedex out.

Pokedex Entry:  
_Houndour, the Dark Pokémon_  
_Houndour hunt as a coordinated pack. They communicate with each other using a variety of cries to corner their prey. This Pokémon's remarkable teamwork is unparalleled.  
LV 9  
Known Moves:  
-Ember = 40  
-Smog = 20  
-Nasty Plot = N/A  
-Will-o-Wisp = N/A_

Her cheeks blushed bright red as the Pokémon's level was read aloud. "Yeah, he's a new addition to my team. He hatched about two weeks ago, but he has a knack for smelling things out when something needs to be found. Do you have anything with Trapinch's scent on it?"

"Will his Ultra Ball work?"

"Yeah, that will do." I pulled out Trapinch's Ultra Ball from my backpack and leaned down to let the Houndour sniff it. As soon as my hand got in range, Diablo tried to bite it off, but my reflexes have been growing faster with my Trapinch trying to do the same thing, except with a much more powerful jaw. "Oh sorry! I should have warned you that he does not like anyone near him except me." She looked to the side mareepishly and grabbed my Ultra Ball from my hand, and then placed it in front of Diablo's (proper name for the little demon dog) nose. He sniffed it for a few seconds then barked and started heading down the hall.

We arrived at my room and she immediately opened. I should have told her that that used to be my room, but ever since Trapinch and I got better, we were booted out and into a smaller, less comfortable room. She burst into the room to see a man and his Machoke both with their arms in slings looking awkwardly at us.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She turned around embarrassed and her cheeks once again turned a cherry red. Before I could apologize for not warning her, Diablo was already sniffing moving towards the room that I was currently in. This time she cautiously opened the door. There was no Trapinch. All that was there was just a messy bed with an empty box of pizza on top of it.

"Sorry. I have no idea where my Trapinch could have wondered off to." This wasn't like the Trapinch. He was free from being restrained yesterday and he pretty much stayed at my side trying to eat me or Oliver. Surely his stubby legs couldn't have carried him too far.

Diablo put his paw over his nose ashamed of himself. Just then I imagined how the PokeCenter, no…Mauville City would end up if Trapinch stayed lost for too long. I imagined fire running rampant all throughout the city as many people were still trapped inside burning buildings. Chaos and destruction ruled over every street, while the Blastoise fire department couldn't cover the whole city, and major parts of the city were lost. All because my Trapinch bit through electrical wiring in the PokeCenter because he thought it was a gummy Wurmple.

That's it! If there is one thing I've learned about Trapinch so far, is that he loves to eat. When we first arrived here, he ended up eating five of the monitors that were attached to him. "I know where he is!"

We burst through the kitchen door to see a sickening sight. Well, sickening to me at least. Trapinch was giving the cooks in the kitchen a show for pieces of raw Miltank. He would roll over when told to roll over, make clicking sound when told to speak, and just stare at them when told to play dead. Each time he did one of the three, he was rewarded with a treat.

Diablo then went beside Trapinch and started mimicking him earning him a nice fair chunk of Tauros meat. Oliver decided he wanted a piece of the action and started mimicking Trapinch too. They threw down a raw piece of Miltank. He pecked at it a bit then looked at it in disgust and ran back to me. Trapinch quickly devoured Oliver's piece then ate the rest of Diablo's as well.

Trapinch let out a satisfied click sound then waddled over to me. "Okay you have caused enough damage for today. Return." Trapinch was absorbed back into his Ultra Ball in a flash of red light.

"Well that was a nice change of pace. I'm glad you found your Trapinch." She smiled at me, and even though it was raining outside, it was all sunshine in here. "Hey do you think that there are any other open rooms here. I just came from a contest in Verdanturf Town."

"Well how did you do?" She looked down at her flip flops then to the side trying to avoid my eyes. "Oh, you lost…"

"Of course I didn't lose! " She seemed a bit flustered just by me stating the fact. "I just saw someone there. A friend who has lost their way. But anyway…I better go check in and try to get me a room here." With that she turned. Her hair seemed as if it was moving in slow motion and her devil dog followed her out.


	10. Every Great Dream Begins With a Dreamer

"Why are you not in Rustboro yet?" The all too familiar voice of the little girl was back. She pranced around in the white room that was only home to me and her. "I told you I need your help, but you are not helping." Just then I remembered how I woke up with a cut on my face the next morning after my last dream involving her. These dreams…no, nightmares, were starting to freak me out.

"Who are you?" She stopped and stared at me. "I asked who you are."

"Have you not learned by now that I can't just give away information? You have to earn the information in a game, silly. Now what should the game be this time?" She tapped the side of her face pondering on what way she should torture me now. "How about we play a game of hide and go seek, wait we did that last time didn't we?"

"How about we play the game: tell me who you are." It was worth a shot, but she only laughed and continued to think of what game to play. A look of excitement then came across her face as she started jumping up and down.

"Let's play the game of cat and mouse! You'll be mouse, and I'll be the cat! Meow…th!" With that last statement she started to change. Her dress started to meld into her skin as well with her hair and…well just about everything. Her eyes were now big and wide with the pupils being much more slit. Her ears were large and outlined in black, and in the middle of her forehead was a large coin. She appeared to be slightly purring.

"Is this your version of cat and mouse? I am about a good three feet taller than you." She looked me in the eyes with her large eyes and they started to glow a dull, eerie green as she snapped her fingers. Then she started growing, no wait…I was shrinking.

I looked at my hands which were no longer hands that had visible fingers. They were more like yellow mittens. I looked down only to see a yellow body and yellow feet. I placed my hands on my cheeks in shock only to find there were rough circular spots there. What was wrong with me? I looked behind me and noticed a short stubby tail. I placed my hand-mittens on my head out of shock only to feel long ears on my head causing me to gasp out loud. I was a Pichu!

I looked up at her with my big brown eyes carrying fear in them. She wasn't that much taller than me, only about four inches, but it was like it was natural instincts to fear her, or at least her Meowth form. She grinned at me baring her tiny sharp teeth which could easily pierce through my soft flesh.

"No. This is my version of cat and mouse!" With that large boulders rose from the ground and the room seemed to expand to no visible point. Some of the boulder levitated off the ground creating steps and a few more platforms above our heads. "Above us, on the fourth floor is a block of cheese for your cute, little mouse self. If you get the cheese, you also get my information and a nice little snack. But I'm going to try and stop you with all my might. Oh and don't forget that everything that happens carries over into reality. Now I'll give you a ten second head start starting…now! Ten."

I immediately started running towards the stairs. Surely I could get enough distance between myself and that crazed cat to get to the top floor without having to worry about. Nine. I easily moved out of the way dodging large boulders that were jutting out of the ground. Eight. I was only about a twenty yards away from the stairs. Seven. I was almost there. Six. Just a little bit more. Five. If I could only. Three, two, one…as soon as I reached the stairs I heard an awful cat battle cry. I looked to see how far away she was, and she was already halfway to the stairs. I frantically scurried up the stairs often tripping over myself trying to get away from the feline devil. I was only half way up the stairs when she reached the first stair. She glided up the stairs, often going two stairs at a time, but I somehow ended up getting to the second floor before she reached me.

Not a second later, she burst out jumping right over me and landing in front of the way to the second staircase. She grinned again showing her razor sharp teeth and raised her paw to swat at me. I barrel rolled to the left avoiding her paw and continued to run. She simply put her paw on my tail which stopped me dead in my tracks.

"You have lost the game." She brought up a claw and her claws jetted out of it, more than doubling in size. Fright filled my body as I struggled to get lost. Then a warm sensation filled my body and I got this tingly feeling. Static started crackling around my body, then a loud *_CLACK_* sound was heard and I released an electrical pulse through my body.

I think I had just used Thundershock, but I was not quite sure. I didn't really care either because when I did so she pulled her paw back in pain. I started running towards the stairway until I realized that the ground was starting to break apart as segments of the floor fell through completely. All that was in front of me were a couple of floating boulders that led to the staircase. I would have to jump them.

I jumped on the first boulder and it seemed to wobble a bit, but eventually stabilized. I then flung myself to the second boulder. I caught myself as I landed on it. When I landed it caused the boulder to float a bit farther off from the rest of the boulders. I did not have time to adjust myself, I had to jump now. I jumped for the third rock and caught onto it with my hands, or paws, or whatever they were. My hand-paws started slipping and I accidentally looked down. I did not see down into the first floor. All I saw was a black abyss. My hand-paws continued to slip. Curse my lack of fingers. I somehow got a grip and pulled myself atop of the floating rock. That's when I saw the she-cat was now on the first boulder. There was no way I could outpace her on this terrain, so I sent a massive electrical shock through the first rock destroying it and catapulting myself to the next one. I repeated the process until I made it to the stairway.

I took in a deep breath as using all that electricity caused me to be fairly fatigued. I saw that she was now preparing to jump. She leapt across the abyss, but I was too busy running up the stairs to notice whether she landed or not.

The third floor was a maze reminding me of one of my first dreams with the eccentric girl. I tried to remember if Pichu's knew any attacks that could get them through this. Wait, don't Pichu's know Volt Tackle? I tried to summon the immense electrical field needed for Volt Tackle but failed. I tried again with no success.

Then a paw landed to the right of me. She had made it somehow across the darkness. I backed up only to be pinned up against one of the walls of the maze. I looked around to see what possible chance of escape I had. If I went to my left, I would only effectively trap myself, while to my right was the entrance to the maze, so the decision was clear.

I dove underneath her legs, sliding along my stomach as I escaped being cat food. I scrambled to get up and ran into the entrance of the maze with the cat-girl right on my heels. I started to run on all fours as it felt more natural in this form increasing my speed and slowly, but surely started putting distance between us. Left, Right, Right, Left. The maze seemed endless as eventually I stopped to take a break. I looked back to see no Meowth. That was good, now I could rest a little bit. I heard a soft 'meow' in the background as I started to rub my little feet to hopefully make them feel better.

After what felt like a minute or two I got back, up feeling somewhat better and started to make my way out, this time at a slower and more steady pace. Finally I reached the end of the maze and quickly climbed the stairs to retrieve the cheese. As I climbed the last stair, the room came into full view. And right in front of me was that dreaded feline.

Almost instantly my foe swung one of their claws at me as I narrowly avoided being decapitated by stepping back. '_That Volt Tackle could surely come in handy right now'_ I thought to myself as I dodged blow by blow. The cheese was so close, yet so far.

Suddenly it hit me. Not one of her swiftly moving claws, but my training with Martin, and how Pokemon can sometimes master moves of theirs in time of desperation. Electricity started forming around my body and the Meowth girl backed off. I aimed myself directly at her launching like a rocket, she sidestepped the brilliant electrical attack but she wasn't my target. I kept barreling forward right into the cheese.

A bright flash of light was summoned as soon as I touched the cheese, and suddenly I was back in the white room with the little girl.

"Grace." She muttered something under her breath.

"What did you say?"

"My name's Grace."


	11. Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

A hard tap on my door awoke me from my slumber. I looked up thinking I could see who it was, but I forgot that the doors were not see through. I got up lazily, accidentally knocking Oliver onto the floor and hitting Trapinch's Ultra Ball releasing him right beside Oliver. They both looked at me with irritated looks on their face, but I was too tired to reply. Whoever was at the door banged on it again this time a bit harder. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Sheesh."

I opened the door and revealed a rather unkempt Naomi. She scratched her wild bed head then walked into my room as if she did not an invite, of course she did not did one, but still. Whatever it was that she had yesterday that made me fall head over heels was gone. Her hair was messy and tangled. Dried spittle clung to her mouth as if hanging on for dear life, and let's just say she had a _lot _of eye crust chilling out near her optics. My eyes vomited a little bit as they took in the groggy mess that was Naomi.

"Yes?" I did not mean to sound rude with my one word reply to her appearance, but I really did not know how to reply to what stood in front of me. Her hair was uncombed. Her face was unwashed. And by the smell of it, her teeth were un-brushed and pits un-deodorized.

"Sorry about…how I look right now and possibly how I smell right now." '_Not possibly, definitely how you smell right now_' I thought to myself, hoping that she didn't have the power to read my mind. "But I wanted to get you before you left and went doing whatever it is you do." I was hardly focusing on what she was saying because with each word she spoke, it was like a punch in the nose. I opened my mouth to breathe through it, but sucking in her morning breath through my mouth was not much better. I could actually taste her thick, damp breath. "Wherever you are going, I am coming too." She said it in a matter of fact tone.

"Okay, but I am going to need to freshen up first. I will meet you in a few." I hope she took the hint that she also needed to clean herself up as well. She walked out of my room closing the door as well. Despite the humid weather going on outside, I opened the door to let in some _fresh_, and I use that word loosely, city air. I took in a deep breath of the thick, smoggy air which I am sure was not _much_ better than Naomi's breath, but it still was somewhat better.

"Okay Trapinch come on, it is time for your meds." He looked at me then shook his head. "Come on now. Don't be this way. I do not have time for this. You have to take your antibiotics until they are gone, because Nurse Joy said that a lot of those wounds were able to let in some nasty germs." He reluctantly opened his mouth, and I tossed them in there from a good distance as to not have him _accidentally_ bite my hand off. As soon as the medicine landed in his mouth he snapped it shut.

I freshened up and got ready in about an hour and met Naomi at a table for some breakfast. She had dropped the squalid aura that had surrounded her being earlier this morning. I only had a glass of Tropius Orange Juice and a stack of waffles, while Naomi chewed delicately on some veggie bacon.

"So what should we do today?" She held one strip of bacon in her hand and twirled it around in the air.

"Umm, well I was actually planning to go over to see this breeder named Martin, so Oliver can perfect Aerial Ace." I was talking with my mouth full, and I knew it was rude, but man I was hungry.

"Really, he is he good? You know I have a Pokemon that can teach him Aerial Ace. How much are you paying him for it?" She bombarded me with her words and some of her veggie bacon as she spoke quickly.

"Well originally I was going to have to pay him a grand, but he decided to give me some slack and only make me pay half." I stuffed another piece of waffle in my mouth still happy I had made a great deal to teach Oliver a powerful move.

"You are paying half a grand! Are you kidding me?" She seemed to be just as stoked as me about my awesome deal. "You must be crazy! Most people only charge around a hundred dollars to teach a Pokemon a new move, and you are paying him five times that!" I ended up dropping my fork and swallowing everything that was in my mouth without swallowing.

"Are you kidding me? He was scamming me?" I was beyond pissed, Oliver seemed to be pissed, and Trapinch…well Trapinch still had the creepy smile on his face, but I'm going to say he was pissed to because it made me feel better. We were all pissed.

"Yep. He got a killing of off you. That's too bad for you. Now you will not be able to get your money back." She had grabbed another piece of veggie bacon and bit it in half.

"Wait..I haven't paid him yet."

"He hasn't made you pay yet. He seems to be a rooky at this scamming thing. Number one for all scammers is to get paid first." She tossed the rest of the strip of veggie bacon into her mouth.

"Wait, so I can still get out of here with my five hundred dollars!"

"Or we could make him pay for trying to make you pay him those five hundred dollars." A devilish smile came across her face that freaked me out more than Trapinch's smile, and that's saying a lot.

"Umm, I think I should just quit while I'm ahead." I said sort of quietly, because this new Naomi was a bit freaky, even more so than obnoxiously dirty Naomi.

"No! We are going to make him pay!" Naomi got up and pulled me up as well with both of my Pokémon on our heels. In a short amount of time we were on the bus, where I had to return Trapinch since he insisted trying to eat the seatbelts, on towards Martin's place.

"I can't believe that I got scammed by some nasty scumbag huckster. I have had enough of this city. I am actually starting to miss the cozy, little town of Lavaridge. The only reason people go there is for the gym badge." I slumped in my chair a little bit with Oliver readjusting to my new position. Everyday home sickness was starting to get worse and worse, but I would have to ignore it. How else would I be able to be a great, traveling trainer?

"Well you are a newbie to the city, so it's only natural."

"Hey, I am not a newbie. There was a guy trying to sell me a bike and I was able to get out of that one."

"Yeah, I can tell you are so _experienced _at being in the city." She rolled her eyes as she made the statement. "What idiot would even buy a bike to go around and travel with all of their belongings? That's so ridiculous!"

Finally we arrived at Martin's ranch and payback would be mine. I wasn't sure what Naomi had in plan, but I'm sure it would be good. We got off the bus and saw that Martin had been waiting for us on one of the chairs on his family's house porch.

"Ah, my pupil has arrived. Let's get cracking on that Aerial Ace move. Oh and who's this little lady you brought with you?" He smiled a bright, toothy smile, but all I saw was a crooked one. Now that I knew what he was up to.

"Save it! Why were you charging Tyler five hundred dollars to teach his Torchic Aerial Ace?" Was this her plan, to come in guns blazing? Oh Arceus help me!

"Tyler, what is this crazy girl talking about?"

If you can't beat them join them. "She's talking about how you are just a swindling…swindler…who swindles!" Unfortunately that was the best insult I had for him. "I'm not paying you." Tyler seemed somewhat taken back by the statement, but quickly regained his composure.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, because now I got to take back my merchandise. Go Ivysaur. Ivysaur take that Torchic away from him!" He pulled out two normal Pokeball and released a green dinosaur like creature with a flower about to bloom on its back. Vines shot of the Ivysaur's back and grabbed Oliver away from me and pushing me down at the same time. The vines brought Oliver and placed him into Martin's arms.

"What the heck are you doing?" I was frantic as I got up! He just took my Torchic!

"I'm claiming back my merchandise. He knows Aerial Ace now, and since you won't pay you can't have him until you pay me my grand."

"Hey you said it was half a grand before!" Naomi had now stepped in and her faced was flushed bright red from anger.

"Well I'm changing it. I'm holding all the cards now!" He laughed maniacally as Oliver squirmed to get free.

"Well it's a good thing I always keep an ace up my sleeve. Go Ace!" She threw out a black Pokeball with green circles on it revealing a large quadrupedal beast. It had white fur all over its body and a scythe like object stuck out from the side of its head. It was clear to me what the Pokemon was. Everyone knew this Pokemon. It was Absol the bringer of disasters.

"You have an Ab-abs-absol?" My voice was a bit more frightened than I would have liked it to be, but still there was an Absol standing in front of me. There were plenty of children stories where Absols would come to cities, and days later the city would be ravaged by floods and earthquakes.

"Of course I have an Absol, he's my starter, but this isn't the time to focus on what Pokémon I have." She turned her attention back to Martin who now had a Haunter out as well. "Tyler, just return him to his Pokeball."

"Oh right." I fumbled around for his Pokeball and accidentally dropped it.

"Oh no you don't! Haunter use Mean Look on the Torchic!" The ghost's eyes started to glow blue, and then Oliver started to glow a light blue too. I finally picked up my Pokeball and tried to activate it but it wouldn't work. "You won't be able to return Oliver back to his Pokeball until you give me my one thousand dollars."

"Or until we take down that Haunter of yours. Go Ace, use Shadow Claw!" Naomi was now filled to the brim with anger.

"Ivysaur stop that thing with Razor Leaf!" Martin cried as he clung tighter to Oliver who replied with a loud shriek.

The Absol's claws started sparking with dark electricity as the shadows from surrounding objects started surrounding his paw. He then lunged towards the Haunter at an incredible speed.

Unfortunately, right before he hit his mark, a whirlwind of leaves from the Ivysaur blasted him knocking him off course and into the ground.

"Now use Leech Seed Ivysaur, and you get over here Haunter." Martin smirked as his Haunter hid behind him and his grassy dinosaur got ready to shoot a Leech Seed at Ace.

"Use Magic Coat Ace!" Naomi's fists were now balled into fists, her knuckles stark white, as if she was going to punch Martin when this was all over.

Ivysaur shot multiple seeds that glowed bright yellow towards Ace. I had remembered what Leech Seed was capable of and how it drained its host of its energy. I started sweating hoping that she could do this.

Absol started to glow a light blue right before the seeds hit, and something extraordinary happened. The seeds bounced off Absol's glowing body and were redirected to Ivysaur and split into vines as it surrounded the Seed Pokemon's flower.

"Okay now use Ice Beam Ace. Oh and by the way Ty, you could try and help out just a little bit." I had gotten so caught up in the battle between Ace and the Ivysaur that I forgot I could help.

"Okay Trapinch come on out." My little demon emerged from its Pokeball and looked at me with its blank expression. "Use…what do you know?" I scratched my head as I fished around for my Pokedex in my backpack. In my peripheral vision I could see Ace blasting blue beams out of his mouth.

"You don't know what moves your Trapinch knows?" Now she seemed to be angry at me.

"Hold on, hold on." I pointed my Pokedex at the Trapinch and pushed the info button.

Pokedex entry:  
_Trapinch, the Ant Pit Pokémon  
Trapinch's nest is a sloped, bowl-like pit dug in sand. This Pokémon patiently waits for prey to tumble down the pit. Its giant jaws have enough strength to crush even boulders._  
_LV 25  
Known Moves:  
-Bite=60  
-Faint Attack=60  
-Sand Tomb=15  
-Quick Attack=40  
-Dig=80  
-Hyper Beam=150  
-Sand Attack=N/A_

The fact that my Trapinch knew Hyper Beam and was a much higher level than Oliver threw me for a loop. If he knew that attack, why didn't he just use it on us in the desert? Well it didn't matter know, because now I had to save Oliver.

"Okay Trapinch use Hyper Beam!" I expected to see my Trapinch start blowing stuff up with powered up beams, but all I got was a whole lot of nothing. Then Trapinch noticed Oliver was in Martin's hands and started clicking loudly. Trapinch didn't respect me at all, but if there was one thing he he did respect, it was Oliver for the amount of strength he showed in their battle in the desert.

Trapinch launched across the field at an unreal speed in what I assumed was Quick Attack. The attack hit the Ivysaur in the side, and it was now struggling as it had to deal with two Pokémon to fight.

"Haunter use Thunderbolt on that Absol." Martin now had a worried look on his face as his Ivysaur took another Ice Beam and was constantly being drained by Leech Seed.

The air around the ghost started cracking with electricity, it then shot a massive bolt of energy at Ace sending the Absol flying all the way back to his trainer fainted. She then bent down to tend to his wounds.

Martin started to snicker until my Trapinch used another Quick Attack on the Ivysaur causing it to fall over and not get back up. Using the momentum he had gained from the Quick Attack he launched at the Haunter as a black aura engulfed using what I thought to be Faint Attack. Almost immediately on impact, the Haunter fainted as it haphazardly landed on the ground. Trapinch finally lunged for Martin's head while he was in the air, but Martin had dodged and dropped Oliver in the process, which was most likely his worst mistake.

Oliver turned around and took in a deep breath then released a barrage of Ember attacks on Martin's legs. His pants caught fire as Trapinch placed Oliver on his back and dashed over to me and Naomi at a blinding speed. I returned both of my Pokémon to their Pokeballs and beckoned for Naomi to come on who had already returned her Absol.

Luckily for us the bus was back, and we got on and heard his frantic cries in the background. "Is he going to be all right?" The bus driver asked as we got aboard.

"Oh he will be fine." I replied as Martin called out his Wingull which extinguished the flames. We sat down next to a window that allowed us to enjoy the show.

"Ty, you're a pretty cool kid. On that note I would like to know if you would be my guest and accompany me to Slateport City?" She looked at me with sparkles in her eyes, and it was kind of hard to say no, so I just nodded my head to imply a 'yeah sure.'

Oh great…another city.


	12. Fighting Spirit

The dark night lit up as Oliver blew a plume of flames towards a shifting shadow swiftly moving to and fro in the dark. The warm glow bathed our surrounding in an orange light for a few seconds before it died back down and the uncomfortable hands of night returned with its unshakeable grip once more. During the day Route 110 was rather uneventful and exceptionally mundane. Now that I look back on it, I kind of miss the long boring hours of heat. I didn't feel as if I was being consistently hounded by some feral beast out to eat me. A rustle to my left slapped me out of my daze and Oliver sent another blast of flame toward the movement. Shadows danced the tango with Oliver's yellow flames as whatever the beast in the bush was devoured by the ferocious and indiscriminant fire.

"We need to stop and rest. Our Pokemon are in dire need at some sleep." Naomi gave her two cents as Ace the Absol panted heavily. She was right of course but the last time we stopped we were attacked by a group of marauding Zigzagoons (now I know why they have goon included into their horrid names).

"Fine, but we need to stay on our toes. I don't feel like having my ankle gnawed at again by some crazy Pokemon." I looked down at my ankle to examine the pin prick bite marks left by an exceptionally brave Zigzagoon expecting something to happen. Oliver collapsed with a sigh and practically hugged the ground with his nonexistent arms. In a matter of seconds a soft whistle like snore could be heard from his direction. Ace eyed a comfy looking spot, circled it once, and then laid down delicately.

"Since our main defense is resting maybe we should call out some more fire power." As she said that Naomi grabbed another Dusk Ball on her waist and released its contents. A small black bird emerged with what appeared to be witch's hat. "This girl right here is Peace the Murkrow." The black bird landed on Naomi's shoulder and squawked.

I grabbed the Ultra Ball on my waist and called out my unfriendly neighborhood Trapinch. He clicked noisily as his eyes or whatever they were adjusted to the dark surroundings.

Naomi and I both sat down back to back to keep us up right. And pretty much gave us a full view of everything on the ground. Trapinch could feel everything going on beneath the ground, and Peace had the view of everything in the air. We were secure. At least that's what we thought.

I shifted uncomfortably on the ground as rocks and sticks poked into my side. Restlessly I pulled myself up and started to stare north towards Mauville. I had only left home a little more than two weeks ago and I felt like I had accomplished so much. I looked towards Oliver and my Trapinch and a slight smile tugged at the corner of my lips. '_What a team we are' _I thought to myself. Finally feeling a wave of sleepiness hit, I laid back down on the rather uncomfortable ground not really caring that I was literally sleeping on a mattress of rocks. Slowly, I started to drift into sleep.

Before sleep had full overcome me I noticed that to the side the water started rippling, then started bubbling, then eventually began frothing violently. A head with a star shaped ornament peered out of the agitated water at us. I sleepily dismissed it as a hallucination and returned to my thoughts of sleep. Just then the star started glowing and shot multiple dichromatic stars of blue and green from its headpiece towards us.

Ace, who took the figure of speech – sleeping with one eye open – literally, hopped up and took the Swift down with a well aimed Ice Beam. The stars froze solid then burst, littering the ground with broken ice. The beast brought itself completely out of the water onto the winding path. I didn't need my Pokedex to try and see what this Pokemon was. I immediately recognized the hideous creature as Crawdaunt, the infamous Rogue Pokemon.

While I was younger I was told never to go to close to the water's edge for if a Crawdaunt caught you in its territory, it would literally rip you to pieces. Now here I was no more than five feet away from one.

Trapinch clicked aggressively at our intruder. He adjusted himself then launched at the crustacean using a light speed Quick Attack. Despite my Trapinch being the size of one of the Crawdaunt's pincers, he still dealt a clean blow to the water fiend. The ferocious creature doubled back then launched a powerful Bubblebeam point blank at my Trapinch. For a second I thought he was down and out, but my rising doubts were cancelled when he got back up and clicked noisily.

Ace and Peace launched multiple Shadow Balls at the monster, and all the while Oliver continued to sleep, while I didn't do much more. Naomi ordered quick successive commands as I tried to adjust to what was going on.

"Use Thunder Wave!" Electricity started to cracking around the feathers of the dark bird. She then shot a blast of electrical energy of the shell covered behemoth. It cringed as its motor skills started to wane. Unfortunately the evil thing wasn't going down without a fight. A long, drawn out fight.

It slowly raised it claw above its head, and an orb of glowing blue water started forming above the pincer. It slammed its claw down and the ball went down as well with it smashing into the ground sending powerful vibrations throughout the ground. As it hit the ground a large wave formed then started washing towards us. I saw my Trapinch start running in the direction of the oncoming wave. I snapped to and chased after him, but stopped after three steps. I turned and saw my sleeping Torchic looking exceptionally vulnerable to the oncoming wave. I mustered a great strength and leapt an amazing distance, engulfing his downy mass with my body.

Just as I brought him to my chest the wave swept us up and brought us into the river. I struggled to stay afloat and keep Oliver out of the water, but it wasn't going so well. Naomi had been swept beside me with her Absol, while Peace crowed at the rowdy Crawdaunt from the skies. The only thing left on the path besides the aquatic demon was my Trapinch…

Wait my Trapinch was still standing after that. My water weak Trapinch!

I sloppily swam to a nearby boulder jutting out of the water forcing Oliver on the top of it and grabbing onto the side. Naomi quickly followed to the rock with her Absol not far behind. I gasped bobbing in and out of the water while trying to grab my Trapinch's Ultra Ball. I succeeded and tried to return him with no avail. Crap! I forgot the darn things went into a Standby like mode when they got wet to prevent the Pokemon inside from getting killed. The only problem was that, my Pokemon wasn't inside. Why couldn't they just make water proof Pokeballs?

I returned my attention to the fight to see that my Trapinch was still standing and fighting valiantly.

The Crawdaunt's claws then gained a bright metallic glow and it lunged at my Trapinch. It launched its Metal Claws in quick jabs trying to catch its opponent off guard, but its tactics failed. My Trapinch evaded each one and countered by latching on to one of its claws.

"Good job Trapinch, keep it up!" I yelled across the water to cheer on my outmatched Pokemon. If he couldn't win then Naomi and I would go down as another one of the countless trainers that have lost their lives while on a trainer's journey.

The Crawdaunt flailed wildly trying to get my Trapinch off, but I knew from experience that my little monster wouldn't let go unless you knock him senseless, and even then hardships would be encountered. Each time the Crawdaunt tried getting my Trapinch off, my little critter only tightened his grip on the Rogue Pokemon.

"How about you tell your Trapinch to do some moves?" Naomi yelled frantically as the battle seemed to be going nowhere anytime soon.

"How about you tell your Murkrow to do some moves?" I replied snappily. She looked at her bird of the night and saw that each attempt of it attacking failed. The only attack of Peace that had seemed to get through the armored Pokemon was Thunder Wave, but the paralysis was starting to wear off with each passing second.

"Peace, ummm, use Wing Attack!" The frightened bird started focusing energy into its left wing and it started glowing a bright white. She rushed towards the frantic Crawdaunt who cleverly took advantage of the situation by slamming the pincer with my Trapinch on it into Peace effectively knocking my Trapinch off and the powerful blow sent Peace skidding along the ground.

"A lot of good that did…" I said as our Pokemon struggled to get up. Then it hit me. We actually had a chance of fighting the demon when it was immobilized by Thunder Wave. If we could stop it completely then we could win. "Naomi! I got it! Have Peace launch as many Thunder Waves at the Crawdaunt as possible."

"But—"

"Just do it!"

"Alright! Peace, blast that crustacean with multiple Thunder Waves!" Naomi yelled spitting out water in the process.

"Okay Trapinch I need you to grapple that Crawdaunt with Sand Tomb." My desert demon looked at me as if I was crazy. It was practically screaming '_How dare you tell me what to do'._ "Just do it!"

Peace was back in the air and she was firing multiple blasts of electricity at the beast in an attempt to subdue it, but all missed. The Crawdaunt landed right in front of my Trapinch and its right pincer started glowing bright blue with energy. It was about to use Crabhammer, its most powerful move. It brought the pincer down and my Trapinch narrowly avoided impact. But the sheer force of the attack still sent him flying.

But the Crawdaunt had made one fatal mistake. When it drove its pincer down using Crabhammer, it burrowed its claw into the sand. Before it could even react, tendrils of sand started wrapping themselves around the Crawdaunt's limbs and engulfing the raging beast. Now a still target Peace let loose a barrage of electrical pulses toward Crawdaunt who was drowned in electricity and sand. The sand continued to cocoon itself around the monster with the multiple Thunder Waves hardening it. Eventually it was completely covered and only resembled a mound of sand.

Naomi and I pulled ourselves ashore along with our Pokemon to congratulate our team members for a job well done. Despite my Trapinch's obvious disdain for everything me-related I enveloped him in a large hug accompanied with many cheeps of joy from Oliver. In all the noise of celebration I thought I heard a crack sound but I quickly shrugged it off, bringing my attention back to my present company.

Just then a louder crack was heard and everyone turned the origin of the noise. As soon as everyone turned towards the sand covered Crawdaunt it busted out moving at an above average speed towards us. No one knew how to react. No one except my Trapinch that is.

He situated himself quickly clicking with irritation. My little monster opened his mouth and started forming an orange ball of pure energy in between his Ursaring trap of a jaw. All other noise was drowned out by the buzzing of the energy formed by my Trapinch. He radiated with fighting spirit as the Crawdaunt advance upon us.

Then in a flash he blasted a stream of that pure, unrestrained energy towards the beast. When the cataclysmic beam hit the whole area lit up as if it were daytime. A loud *BOOM* sound was heard and the Crawdaunt was nowhere to be seen, surely having been blasted all the way to Kingdom Come.

The effect the blast had wore off and faded back into nighttime as I stared at my Trapinch in awe. He stared back in a proud way still radiating energy and fighting spirit. I kneeled down to him and pet his head and for once he didn't try to bite my hand off.

"I think I finally have a name for you." The desert dweller tilted his head to the side curious to what his new name could be. "Spirit." He clicked in approval and actually nuzzled against my hand in a similar way to what Oliver is famous for. "Now let's get out of here."


	13. Slateport Saturday

Slateport City was ten times better than Mauville City. Small, family run shops lined the stone paved streets compared to the multiple skyscrapers in Mauville that dwarfed everything else which somewhat reminded me of home. Oliver and Spirit quickly acclimated to the change in scenery too, although we just arrived at Slateport a night ago. Naomi on the other hand had been to Slateport multiple times before and was busy spending her day sleeping at the PokeCenter.

"Welcome." An elderly woman greeted me as I entered her small shop. Her face looked a little bit leathery, like she had been getting too much sun or something, but that was an attribute I noticed all inhabitants of Slateport City had.

"Hello." I said as I started to browse over her goods, which were an assortment of fruits and vegetables.

"You don't look like you're from around here," she said to me as she looked me up and down with smile on her face. Maybe I don't look like I'm around because I don't look like I'm aspiring to be a leather couch when I grow up. "You must be a tourist," she continued, "did you come here for Slateport Saturday?"

"Slateport Saturday?" I repeated quizzically as I scratched my head.

"You don't know of Slateport Saturdays?" She seemed stunned as she asked the question. "On the first Saturday of every month, a wonderful thing happens in this city. Most of the back roads and alleyways of the city are shut down and used for a multitude of festivities. There's dancing, food, and Pokémon trainers, such as yourself," she said as she looked over at Oliver who was now standing on Spirit's head attempting to get a few oran berries, "battle each other all over the place. It's pretty much an unspoken rule that you have to battle when you're challenged to a battle on Slateport Saturday." With a grin on her face she walked over to the oran berries and gave one to Oliver who gobbled it down almost immediately. She offered Spirit one as well but as soon as he saw it wasn't meat, he quickly became uninterested in the berry.

"Battles?" I said quietly to myself. I gulped as I thought of me having an actual trainer battle. Technically Oliver's battle with Martin and his Taillow was a trainer battle, but they had obviously been holding back on us. So I truly never had a real battle with a trainer and I was about to be thrown in some festival where I would be forced to face trainers with more experience than me.

I waved goodbye to the elderly lady then beckoned for Oliver and Spirit that it was time to go. I started to sweat as we headed back to the PokeCenter that Naomi was sleeping at. Not because of the heat that could give Oliver's Embers a run for their money (well that might have contributed a little bit), but because in a little less than a few hours I would be thrown into the world of battling.

"You've never participated in a trainer battle?" Naomi questioned incredulously. I flinched as she said it only reminding me even more of how badly tonight was going to end up going.

"You know…maybe I'll just skip Slateport Saturday. It's not manda—" I started before being cut off by Naomi.

"No! Slateport Saturday is an experience of a life time!" She exclaimed.

"Really…an experience of a life time? Wouldn't it be more like an experience of a month?" I sarcastically replied as I plopped down on my bed.

"You're going…that is unless you would like to battle me." As she said that a somewhat evil smile crept across her face as she eyed Oliver and Spirit. I took my eyes from her then looked at Ace the Absol who looked like he was ready to pounce just from the thought of a battle going on.

"I'll just stick with the other trainers," I replied dejectedly with my head hung low.

Naomi, as expected, had beaten her first two challengers that night. I on the other hand hadn't gotten a single challenge yet (not that I was complaining). Oliver seemed to be enjoying the walk we were having, seemingly not aware that any moment I might be throwing him into vicious battle with another Pokemon. Spirit on the other hand knew we were waiting for a battle and I could tell that he was eager. A bit too eager.

Battles raged on around us as I felt out of place in the streets full of clashing Pokemon. I brought my attention to the battle to my left. A girl with a Linoone was battling against a young boy with a Lombre.

The Lombre fired a barrage of bubbles at the Linoone, in what I assume was a Bubblebeam. The Linoone swiftly dodged the majority of the bubbles then used a Slash attack on the Lombre, successfully knocking it out.

Almost as soon as the battle was over I felt a firm hand on my shoulder. I hesitantly turned around to see who my soon-to-be opponent was. I turned to see a sun baked boy (I assumed a native of Slateport City) around my age holding a Pokeball.

"Battle time!" he cried while locking eyes with me.

"So we can have a two versus two battle." Burnt-boy called as he looked at Oliver and Spirit. I nodded my headed to agree with his terms. He snagged a Pokeball from his belt then tossed it out. "Go Wicker!"

As burnt-boy released the Pokeball, a floating specter with one red eye that changed from socket to socket appeared on the makeshift battlefield.

I pulled out my Pokedex and quickly scanned the Pokemon.

Pokedex entry:  
_Duskull, the Requiem Pokémon  
It loves the crying of children. It is rumored to spirit away bad children that don't listen to their parents._

_LV13  
Known Moves:  
Move List Disabled_

A quizzical look came across my face as I wasn't able to see the ghost's known moves. "Why can't I see your Duskull's moves?"

"Well there's a function on all Pokedex that allows you to hide the moves of your Pokemon from other Pokedex." He smirked as he scratched his chin. "I just can't have everyone knowing my strategies before I even battle."

I grimaced a bit. Strategy…I haven't even thought about strategy. And here I was about to have to go face-to-face with his strategy, with no hopes of countering with my own. "Oliver, you're up." The words came out a bit meeker than I had hoped, which was only met by a snicker from both the severely tanned trainer and his Duskull. Oliver nervously waddled out on the battlefield and shivered when he looked at the Duskull.

"Go Whicker, use Confuse Ray!"

"Get out of the way Oliver and hit him with an Ember!"

The levitating ghost's bright red eye let out a black beam that was targeted straight at Oliver. Oliver nimbly dodged the attack then responded by blasting a stream of fire sparks at Whicker, who unlike Oliver didn't have enough speed to dodge the attack. The fire blasted Whicker and he started losing altitude.

"Now, Oliver while he's falling, get him with Focused Aerial Ace!" While traveling Route 110, Oliver had perfected the use of utilizing Focus Energy to achieve a pseudo-Aerial Ace on the Zigzagoons that often would swarm us in what seemed like all out war.

"Quick Whicker, you've got to get yourself together!"

Oliver's whole body started to glow with blue energy as he focused on getting ready to attack. The energy then started to concentrate itself around Oliver's beak as his beak also started glow white and double in size. In a flash, Oliver launched himself at the struggling Duskull. The attack was a clean blow on the Duskull and caused him to lose more air.

A smile crept across my face as I thought about what the outcome of this battle would probably be. He said he had a strategy, but I didn't see a strategy, unless having his Duskull getting beat senseless was his strategy. If that was his strategy…then I guess he was doing pretty good with it. The smile dropped off my face as I saw Whicker grab hold of Oliver as soon as my Torchic got back on the ground from using Aerial Ace.

"Now Whicker, Confuse Ray once again!"

"Oliver, get him off you somehow. Ember him in the face!"

Oliver opened his mouth and unleashed an Ember into the ghost's skull-like face, but the Requiem Pokemon kept his grip on Oliver. Whicker then let loose a black beam from his eye straight into Oliver's face then threw my Torchic away from him as he regained height. Oliver blinked a couple of times as he shook his head. I could tell something was off when he got up shakily. His gaze wasn't on Whicker anymore, as a matter of fact, it wasn't really on anything. He was just looking around sporadically.

"Now Whicker hit him with Toxic!"

"Quick Oliver, Ember!"

Oliver fired an Ember attack, but to my dismay it completely missed its target by many feet. Whicker quickly took advantage of the situation and formed a sphere of purple smog in between his paws then shot the gas ball right at Oliver.

As soon the ball hit Oliver, it dissipated into a fog surrounding him causing him to go into a severe coughing fit. The ghost Pokemon started to snicker sinisterly as Oliver struggled to breath and was starting to look ill.

"Oliver," I cried frantically, "use Ember." As I called for the move, I realized my mistake a little bit too late.

"_Hmmm, try using Poison Gas." The Muk opened its mouth and covered the field in a thick purple cloud. "Now finish it with Flamethrower." Nothing could be seen through the thick fog. Then the whole field exploded with a giant fire. She had used the flammable gas to expand her reach of Flamethrower to the whole field. When the dust had cleared from the explosion, it was revealed that both Pokemon were knocked out_.

The poisonous gas surrounding Oliver was flammable…and I just ordered him to use a fire-type move. Oliver blinked around a few times trying to locate Whicker. I could only imagine how tough it was to find the Duskull while confused and surrounded by a thick fog of purple. It must have been _extremely_ hard because by the time Oliver started to prepare his attack he was facing the opposite way of Whicker, but it didn't matter, because as soon as he let out his Ember…

BOOM! Oliver was sent flying as the entire area around him exploded. Before Oliver had time to land, burnt-boy was already on to the next move.

"Now Whicker, Shadow Ball!" A black blob was tossed from Whicker straight into Oliver, who was still sailing through the air from the explosion. As soon as the Shadow Ball hit, Oliver was knocked straight into the ground and I was sure he wasn't going to get up after that blow, but honestly, when have I been right? Oliver shakily stood while staring down Whicker. Wait…he was _staring down_ Whicker which meant those hits he took must have knocked some sense back into him and confusion was officially worn off.

Oliver's eyes started to glow red like I had seen in the desert. After looking into that while I was bedridden in Mauville, I learned that it was his ability known as Blaze which pumped up his fire attacks to an extraordinary level. "Alright Oliver, let's go all out. Hit him with a Focus Energy Ember!"

Oliver's beak started to glow a bright blue as he opened his mouth. The blue from his beak drained as it started to form into a ball of fire in his mouth. Before burnt-boy or Whicker could react, Oliver let out a brilliant blue stream of flames straight at Whicker. The flames completely engulfed the ghost Pokemon bathing the area with a weak, blue light.

The stream weakened, and Whicker dropped straight from the sky, unconscious and at the same time Oliver fell over, finally succumbing to his previous wounds and poisoning.

Burnt-boy's face was priceless. "My strategy," he yelped. "We've spent days practicing that. And to get a tie. Unacceptable! Well let's see how you deal with brute strength. Go, Wulf!" My opponent angrily tossed out his last Pokemon as Spirit stepped onto the field.

"Let's do this Spirit!"

Across the field stood a black and grey dog-like creature with blood red eyes, also known as the mean spirited Mightyena.

"Use Crunch Wulf!"

Before I could even call out an attack, the Mightyena had launched at my Trapinch griping his jaws around my Pokemon and shaking him around like a rag doll.

"Faint Attack Spirit!" I called as the Mightyena continued to use Spirit as a chew toy.

One second the Mightyena was shaking my Trapinch all over the place, the next my Trapinch had disappeared right from under his nose (literally) and appeared behind him ready to take a bite out of his hind right leg. But before Spirit could land his attack, Wulf jumped into the air right out of range.

"Follow up with Quick Attack Spirit!" I called out seeing this as a perfect opportunity to get a clean hit in since Faint Attack didn't hit. While Wulf was still in the air, Spirit lunged into the air getting a knocking Wulf in the chest and causing him to fall to the ground on his back.

Burnt-boy grit his teeth as his Mightyena stood to his feet. "Dark Pulse!" The Mightyena started to form rings of dark energy in his mouth then fired it quickly at Spirit.

"Sand Tomb to block the attack!" Spirit started glowing blue as all the dirt and sand on the stone paved roads rose forming a wall between my Trapinch and the incoming Dark Pulse. The sand barrier blew apart sending a gust of dark energy and sand when Wulf's attack connected with Spirit's sand shield.

Wulf closed his eyes as the sand stung them forming a perfect opportunity to get another attack in. Or at least I thought. "Wulf, use Odor Sleuth, then Hyper Beam." Wulf started to sniff around looking for Spirit. When he caught a hold of his scent, he pointed his head straight at my Trapinch then unleashed a bright blast of orange energy.

He thought he would finish us with this move, but it wouldn't be that easy. "Quick Spirit, retaliate with your own Hyper Beam!" The beam fired by Wulf was more than halfway towards Spirit, before my demon of the desert released his own blast of powerful orange energy.

The two blasts collided lighting up the whole area as if a pillar of daylight erupted from the ground, earning quite a few awed looks from the crowd that had started to gather to watch Burnt-boy and my battle.

As the light faded, both of our Pokemon stood in a kind of awkward stalemate unable to move after using such a powerful attack. It seemed like forever before anything happened, then Wulf's ear twitched signaling our Pokemon were able to move again.

"Wulf Take Down!"

"Sand Tomb, Spirit!"

The Mightyena charged towards my Trapinch at a fast pace race with a white glow enveloping him. Trapinch was slower to move as he constructed a half-built wall of sand to guard him, Wulf burst right through it, only slowing down a little bit. When he collided into Spirit, my Pokemon was sent flying but I could tell this fight was taking a toll on Mightyena, and if Spirit didn't faint from the Take Down, then the next attack would finish it.

Spirit rose steadily to his feet with the same determination I witnessed when we fought against the Crawdaunt on Route 110. He clicked noisily as the sand and dirt started to swirl around like a whirlpool starting to zone in on Wulf. The Bite Pokemon tried to get out of the way but he winced when he moved his right front paw, meaning he probably twisted it using that Take Down attack.

The sand and dirt surrounded the Mightyena as it attempted to blast off the layers of sand with Dark Pulses, but as soon as the sand was blown off, a thicker layer would apply itself reinforcing the cocoon of sand and dirt that was now engulfing Wulf.

Soon all of his was covered except for its face. He struggled weakly escape. "Wulf use Dark Pulse at the Trapinch instead." The dog-like Pokemon blasted a weak stream of dark energy at Trapinch but there was more than enough time to land a counter attack.

"Trapinch, Quick Attack!" Spirit, quickly dodged the attack and kept up the speed, hitting Wulf dead in the jaw ending the Dark Pulse and knocking him loose out of the Sand Tomb. I would have been worried…that was if Wulf was still conscious. Spirit and I were the victor which meant I was the winner.

I did a little happy dance while burnt-boy slumped off after returning his Mightyena. "Good job," Naomi said as she approached me. "I actually didn't think you were going to win that one."

"Oh thanks," I replied sarcastically as Spirit walked over to us.

"I mean hey that guy had strategy and you had well…but you countered it which surprised me. Where did you learn how to use your Pokemon moves like that? You haven't been training that long." She said as she scratched her head.

"Well maybe, I just picked it up from all those battles I watched on TV when I was younger." I thought back to when I accidentally used Ember while Oliver was surrounded by a thick poisonous fog. "I should have done better though, there were some mistakes I made that could have been avoided."

"Well mistakes are just a part of training," she added. "So let's go enjoy the rest of Slateport Saturday."


End file.
